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By Root 1287 0

benefits of the aging and drying processes. They argue that problems caused by raw milk cheeses are due to flagrant lapses in good manufacturing practices such as leaving raw milk unrefrigerated overnight or washing the equipment with water from a backyard garden hose (as was the case with the queso fresco harboring antibiotic-resistant Salmonella). Furthermore, requiring milk to be pasteurized might have prevented the queso fresco outbreak, but pasteurized milk also can become contaminated if it is handled carelessly.37 The CSPI outbreak catalog lists just as many incidents due to pasteurized milk or cheeses (or to products of unspecified pasteurization status) as to those attributed to raw milk products. Foods made from raw milk still carry a higher risk, however, as fewer of them are on the market.

The American Cheese Society, a trade group representing the makers of specialty “artisanal” cheeses, advises its members to institute Pathogen Reduction: HACCP. With HACCP plans seemingly taking care of the science, the society also opposes mandatory pasteurization for reasons of values—democracy and individual rights:

The American Cheese Society supports the continued democratic option to use both pasteurized and unpasteurized milk to produce America’s cheeses. . . . We support the rights of individuals in all countries to enjoy their own great cheese historically made with unpasteurized milks. . . . We believe that mandatory pasteurization places an unnecessary hardship on those cheesemakers dedicated to safe and healthy practices. . . . We will ensure that our cheesemakers’ options to use pasteurized and unpasteurized milks are both heard and understood.38

I like the cheeses produced by the members of this society, and I enthusiastically support the work of artisanal cheese makers. Many of them make superb products, whether from unpasteurized or pasteurized milk. I am happier eating them, however, when I know that the maker of the cheese is following a carefully designed Pathogen Reduction: HACCP plan that includes microbial standards verified by testing. No matter how rarely an unpasteurized cheese causes an outbreak, its makers and consumers are taking a gamble—and one with unknown odds.

Good manufacturing practices can reduce the odds to practically nothing, however. On a trip to Italy in 2002, I visited a producer of handmade pecorino and ricotta cheeses derived from raw sheep’s milk (latte crudo). The owner employed a full-time microbiologist to test every batch of cheese for Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli O157:H7, and several other potential pathogens. He also insisted that his milk suppliers do such testing, and aged his cheeses beyond the time the FDA requires for imports. With this level of care, raw milk cheese raises minimal safety concerns.

To generalize from this example: Pathogen Reduction: HACCP should reduce foodborne illness when manufacturers follow the plan and monitor pathogen levels in the products. Failure to do so can cause severe illness in consumers (and severe liability for manufacturers). It may be true that only an occasional child gets sick or dies from eating contaminated food, but that event becomes a personal tragedy rather than a statistical matter if the child is yours. Whether eating raw foods is worth the risk is a matter of personal values when—and only when—all parties understand and take responsibility for what is at stake. Education of consumers or techno-fixes cannot protect against illness when the problems originate at the production or processing level, which is why Pathogen Reduction: HACCP and monitoring of performance standards are essential for producers of all foods, artisanal as well as corporate.

ALTERNATIVE #4: LITIGATE

It might seem reasonable to think that the cost of outbreak judgments in the tens of millions of dollars would be enough to make companies leap to put effective HACCP plans in place, required or not. That they fail to do so is in part a result of the shared responsibility for food safety among producers, processors, retailers, food service providers,