Speciality Food April 2025

CHEESE UNCUT 34 New retail perspectives from industry experts @specialityfood “Healthy cheese is made by healthy people” I was inspired to write this month’s column by the lovely Tarini Gupta from Spotted Cow Fromagerie in Mumbai, India. India is a big place, and artisan cheese is not widely consumed, although I am excited to report that the artisan cheese market is on the up and India is indeed getting a real taste for the good stuff. Much of the cheese sold in India is analogue cheese. Take paneer for example. Recently the producer Zomato Hyperpure (even the name is wrong) was in the spotlight for their analogue paneer. This style of cheese (not cheese) generally contains hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have higher levels of trans fats. This can increase your bad cholesterol and put you at higher risk of heart disease and inflammation. This is pure food adulteration and has no goodness whatsoever. Unscrupulous businesses then use the analogue paneer instead of the real stuff to save money. Paneer is hugely popular throughout India. On menus a lot of restaurants choose not to mention analogue in the menu description. Let’s look at McDonald’s – should the highly coloured so- called cheese slice that adorns their mass-produced burgers be called cheese? Well, here are the ingredients as listed on the company’s website: milk, cream, water, cheese culture, sodium citrate, 2% or less of salt, citric acid, sodium phosphate, sorbic acid (preservative), lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, sodium pyrophosphate, natural flavour, colour added, and soy lecithin. This is not a cheese as we know it. Take Waitrose and their cheese slices – here are the ingredients: cheese (milk, 60%), water, palm oil, milk whey powder, modified potato starch, emulsifying salts JAMES GRANT NO2 POUND STREET (sodium polyphosphate, sodium phosphates), flavourings, calcium phosphates, milk proteins, Colours (beta- carotene, paprika extract). Again, not a real cheese as we know it, potato starch, palm oil etc! Industrialised food processes have ruined our diets and poisoned our world over the last 100 years, with only 30% of the world’s soil being fertile enough to grow healthy produce. So, as consumers and small businesses we need to stand up and fight against mainstream cheese and food garbage. Indeed, these are strong words but the cost to our global society can be truly measured when we look at the health of our humanity and the soil we grow food from. At the Oxford Real Farming Conference I listened to Vandana Shiva, a food sovereignty advocate, who inspired me beyond belief. She said that “building soil, building living soil is the greatest activity that human beings can be engaged in”. Our daily bread bought from supermarkets will mostly contain glyphosate (unless organic) a common herbicide and cited by the World Health Organisation as a probable carcinogen. We are continuing to actively kill our soil and the animals to make way for large mono crop farming, with pesticides and synthetic fertilisers increasing in strength whilst the soil becomes lifeless. We are ingesting toxins through these intensive farming processes, not only through consumption but in the air we breathe and the water we drink. We are living in a time when we must consider our cheese choices carefully. When it comes to our food choices, the farmers of the land are also the custodians of our planet and animals’ health. We need the will of the people to seriously engage with these smaller, artisan, sustainable, ethically- minded and brilliant farming folk. For these good people they care about what they do and provide us. These micro farmers and cheesemakers are happy with their subsistence. Healthy cheese is made by healthy people. We need thewill of the people to seriously engagewith smaller, artisan, sustainable, ethically-minded and brilliant farming folk The fourth annual Affineur of the Year competition has been announced by the Academy of Cheese. Hotly contested by cheesemongers across the UK, 2025’s edition will be held on 3rd June at St Mary’s Marylebone, London. The prestigious event celebrates the artistry of maturing and refining cheeses, bringing together cheesemakers and mongers for a rare opportunity to compete on the same stage. “The competition has been transformative for the UK cheese scene,” said Academy of Cheese founding director, Tracey Colley. “By embracing the techniques of affinage, we are seeing cheesemakers and cheesemongers create entirely new products that have earned attention from cheese lovers and retailers alike.” This year entrants have been asked to mature a Quicke’s Cheddar, Cropwell Bishop’s Blue Shropshire, Fen Farm Dairy’s Baron Bigod, White Lake Cheese’s Solstice, and Trethowan Brothers’ Gorwydd Caerphilly. Tickets for the competition are available now from the Academy of Cheese website. Who will be the next ‘Affineur of the Year’? Cheesemaker Mario Olianas, founder of Yorkshire Pecorino, will officially launch his newest cheese, Town Crier, in late spring/early summer. At the moment, Mario said, trials are underway with trusted customers to gain feedback and insight before the cheese officially hits the market. In a depart from his usual varieties (which tend to be made with sheep’s milk), Mario has chosen to craft Town Crier with cow’s milk. “As were coming up to Christmas we had a shortage of milk and lost a lot of money because we had to stop cheesemaking,” he explained, talking about the seasonality of sheep’s milk, which runs out frequently across the industry due to demand. Town Crier allows the cheesemaker to ‘fill the gap’ in the year. It’s one of the first and only Italianmaker announces new cheese Taleggio-style British cheeses to come to market, designed in a round shape rather than the traditional square. “It’s soft and creamy and adapted to the English palate,” Mario said of the cheese, which is brine- washed up to six times, and matured for a minimum of two months, so when cut it reveals a gooey heart with a slightly chalky centre. “The flavour has rich mushrooms and some meatiness to it, with a bit of acidity and a nice kick of salt as well,” he adds. As for the name. “Our town still has a town crier who is a competition winner. When I told himwhat I was going to call it, he came into the deli and did an announcement with the bell!” Keep your eye on social media for a full launch announcement. For more information contact: louise.barnes@artichokehq.com 01206 508629 CHEESE BUYER 2025 2025 issue Coming soon!