Speciality-Food-July/August 2025

specialityfoodmagazine.com 17 SPECIAL REPORT going to be the start of something incredible. Getting more Irish cheese on shelves in the UK will be a real testament to what we’re trying to do, and I’m getting hugely positive feedback from everyone I speak to. The enthusiasm is palpable.” Cautious optimism around EU Strategic Partnership On 19th May, the EU and UK governments announced a new Strategic Partnership – a move met with cautious optimism by EU cheesemakers, British cheesemongers, and the many devoted fans of EU cheese across the UK. “Since Brexit, increased bureaucracy and trade barriers have made it harder – and more expensive – to import cheese from the EU into Britain,” says The Cheese Tasting Co founder and cheese writer Ned Palmer. “These challenges have hit smaller producers and retailers on both sides of the Channel particularly hard, leading to a reduced range of traditional EU cheeses available to UK consumers. “Some have framed this as an opportunity for British cheesemakers – and indeed, there are outstanding Continental-style cheeses now being made in the UK. But to see this simply as a matter of substitution is to misunderstand what makes cheese so special.” Every traditional cheese, Ned says, is a product of its terroir – a unique expression of the landscape, culture, and history of the place it comes from. Across the EU, hundreds of these cheeses are still being made, many of them protected under the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) scheme. “There’s salty, animalistic Feta PDO from Greece; buttery Bulgarian Kashkaval; fiery blue Cabrales PDO from the mountains of northern Spain; creamy, leaf-wrapped Robiola di Roccaverano PDO from Piedmont; the deeply savoury, toffee-toned aged Goudas of the Netherlands; and, of course, France’s mighty Brie – to name just a few. For British cheese lovers, being cut off from such a rich and diverse selection has been a genuine loss,” he continues. The new Partnership includes plans to simplify trade paperwork – a change that should, in time, make it easier and more affordable to bring these cheeses from EU farms and dairies to shop counters in the UK. “While the changes won’t come into effect until 2026 and many details remain to be resolved, the shift signals a welcome change in direction for EU-UK food trade – and a hopeful step forward for those of us who care deeply about access to really great cheese.” The rawmilk debate Rawmilk cheeses are feted by many cheesemakers and mongers as being the ultimate way of expressing all the qualities that go into the finished product, from the grasses, feed and raising of the animals to the cheesemaking rooms and their locations. Producing rawmilk cheese, however, has become fraught with difficulty. Many French and Italian rawmilk varieties are currently banned from import into the UK, and several British makers have found themselves at the mercy of EHO officers and the Food Standards Agency. Last December, Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheese was forced to pull four products from sale, despite its lab testing showing no trace of harmful pathogens. Humphrey Errington of Errington Cheeses in Lanarkshire was similarly impacted in 2016, when Food Standards Scotland seized batches of Lanark Blue and Corra Linn. The business went on, two years later, to be cleared of any wrongdoing. And more recently, Isle of Mull Cheese has had to shelve its popular rawmilk Hebridean Blue. Brendan Reade, who leads the family’s cheesemaking operations, says, like Humphrey, he feels the business is in a no man’s land at the moment, adding that conditions for selling rawmilk cheeses in Scotland (where rawmilk is banned) are nigh-on impossible. The maker’s independent commercial lab testing, he says, could not detect what was found by regulators. In fact, Hebridean Blue’s results were perfect. “But we’re in a stalemate. They can’t prove what they’ve found is dangerous but if we did distribute, EHO would take us to court.” At the time of going to press, the Reade family were waiting on the results of a study on the cheese – a study they haven’t been privy to the details of. It’s a very frustrating and difficult time, Brendan says, adding that he doesn’t think the regulations are clear enough when it comes to rawmilk cheeses within the EHO. “And they don’t seem to understand what they’re doing. They’ve got the equipment, will find something, don’t know what it is and don’t know how to prove either way if it’s pathogenic.” It’s a practice he feels is wholly unfair to rawmilk cheese producers. He adds that the transporting of cheese for testing should be taken into account as well – how it is picked up, stored and taken to labs by EHO. Currently, he says, there’s no way to prove if cross-contamination has happened once cheeses leave a cheesemaker’s premises. For the time being, Hebridean Blue remains out of action, with the family hoping they can find a resolution soon. “There’s so much talk in the industry about terroir,” Brendan says. “That’s what we’ll lose if we have to pasteurise. It won’t be the same cheese.” SCA board member and The Courtyard Dairy founder, Andy Swinscoe, says there have long been concerns for the future of rawmilk cheeses. “It’s an area that continues to struggle,” he says, adding that part of the issue currently is there’s no premium for crafting cheeses in this way. “If you look at the new cheeses coming on board nowadays, they tend to be pasteurised, because if you make rawmilk cheese in this day and age, in any way, shape or form, you’re making life slightly harder for yourself and you don’t get much return from that. You can’t charge more, but there are loads of boxes to tick, so there’s a lack of incentive.” It’s a shame, he adds, that his counter (which once boasted 80% rawmilk cheeses) is down to 50%. That being said, the SCA continues to provide a good regulatory ON THE UP 1 A YOUNGER AUDIENCE Specialist retailers tell us they are seeing an increase in footfall from customers in their 20s and 30s interested in artisan cheese for dinner parties and grazing platters 2 SOFT BLUES Demand for soft, creamy blue cheeses continues to grow, with scooping Gorgonzola in especially hot demand 3 SHEEP AND GOATS’ MILK Consumers are seeking out alternatives to cow’s milk cheeses more frequently. Interest is currently higher than potential supply, however