CANBERRA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- An Adelaide cheese-maker has become the first Australian to be given approval to produce and sell raw milk cheese after her methods were approved by South Australia's dairy authority.
It has previously been illegal to produce and sell raw milk cheese in Australia under food safety standards introduced in 2015, but Kris Lloyd from Woodside Cheese Wrights in the Adelaide Hills gained approval to sell her raw goats milk curds in Australia.
She told Fairfax Media overnight that the soft curd cheese is made using a brie recipe but is wrapped in vine leaves and matured over several weeks instead of being wrapped in paper to mature.
According to Lloyd, making the cheese from raw milk instead of pasteurized milk imparts a stronger flavor which is "long, lingering and rich."
"It has a beautiful fine texture and it's just lovely - it's velvety and beautiful," she said.
Despite the approval, Lloyd must make her cheese to certain standards to reduce the risk of contamination. The cheese must be made to a certain PH and moisture content.
The cheese must also be lab-tested prior to sale in order to rule out the possibility of pathogens being present.
Lloyd said she had no issue undergoing the stringent checks, as the conditions for making cheese in the Adelaide Hills were among the best in the world.
"We've got clean waterways and wonderful clean air, particularly up in the Adelaide Hills where I get my milk from," Lloyd said.
"We're perfectly positioned to be doing this because our raw material is just so incredibly high quality."
Respected Australian cheese-maker Will Studd said the approval was "a great step forward" for cheese making in Australia, and described Lloyd as a pioneer for the raw milk cheese.
"There is a growing consumer interest in genuine raw milk cheese and now the South Australian authorities have given the green light for Kris to produce and sell a fresh raw milk goat cheese I sincerely hope the precedent can be shared with all cheese-makers in Australia," he told Fairfax Media.
