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Rules are being relaxed from July, starting with imports of raw milk cheese from Europe and then allowing local companies to make raw milk products.
The decision to allow European raw milk cheeses to be imported will delight cheese lovers - but it comes with a warning.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority has approved direct imports of Roquefort, a soft raw milk cheese made in France.
It should be available from July, opening the way for other cheeses made with unpasteurised milk to be imported.
The authority is now consulting with industry groups on a proposal to bring in extra hard Parmesan-style raw milk cheeses Grana Padano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Romano, Asiago and Montasio.
Small consignments of these cheeses currently enter New Zealand via Australia under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement. Direct importation would make them more readily available in specialty shops and restaurants.
Other raw milk cheeses such as Dutch goudas and edams and French bries and camemberts could follow.
Food safety criteria set by the European Community are similar to those in place for the manufacture of New Zealand cheeses, said safety authority director Tim Knox.
"These measures will not lower the risks associated with Roquefort to the same level as pasteurised dairy products because raw milk cheeses are an inherently higher risk product, but they can lower the risks for most healthy New Zealanders to a level similar to other common risky foods already available in New Zealand," he said.
The authority warned that raw milk products carried the risk of listeria and should not be eaten by vulnerable groups such as babies and toddlers, the frail elderly, expectant mothers and anyone whose immune system may be weakened by chronic illness, medication or recent surgery.
Allowing the direct importation of certain raw milk cheeses was a precursor to New Zealand manufacturers being able to produce their own, he said.
"We expect the move will be welcomed by cheese aficionados who have long wanted these types of cheeses to be more readily available here."
Martin Aspinwall, of Canterbury Cheesemongers, said heating and pasteurising milk destroyed the cheese's flavour-giving bacteria and that the safety issue was misunderstood.
"The big danger in cheese is things like listeria, which can live in any soft cheeses, including those that are pasteurised," he said.
The Raw Deal
* Cheeses made with raw milk have been banned in New Zealand because of the risk of listeria, a bacterium which can cause serious illness and miscarriages.
* All cheese in New Zealand must be pasteurised - a heating process which partly sterilises the cheese to kill bacteria.
* Cheesemakers say pasteurisation is unnecessary because it kills the flavour and listeria can still occur.
- NZPA
