“The raw milk cheeses regularly cause epidemics. In particular, they may be involved in the occurrence of clustered cases salmonellosis and haemolytic uraemic syndromes (HUS)”, says Laurent Guillier, scientific coordinator of the expert appraisal on the health risks associated with the consumption of raw milk cheeses within the food risk assessment unit at ANSES.
“These epidemics are a source of concern for the Ministry of Agriculture”, informs Laurent Guillier. This is why ANSES received a request for an opinion on 22 February 2019 from the Directorate General for Food (DGAL) on the procedures for controlling the risk associated with the presence of bacteriological hazards in cheeses and dairy products made from raw milk. The notice was published in January 2022.
Which cheeses are at risk?
“We have prioritized the microbiological hazards associated with raw milk cheeses. The main microbiological hazards are represented by Salmonellain relation to the number of cases, the Escherichia colienterohaemorrhagic and Listeria monocytogenes because of gravity, explains the scientific coordinator who recalls that the lethality rate of listeriosis can go up to 20%.
In France over the past ten years, 34%, 37% and 60% of epidemics, respectively of salmonellosis, listeriosis and infection with E.coli enterohaemorrhagic (EHEC), are linked to the consumption of raw milk cheeses. The other hierarchy concerns the raw milk cheeses most at risk of bacterial contamination, raw milk cheeses grouping together many categories.
The three categories of cheese most at risk?
- “We find in the top 1 soft cheeses with a bloomy rind (brie, camembert, dung…),
- in top 2 uncooked pressed cheeses with short ripening (Morbier, Reblochon, Saint-Nectaire),
- and in the third highest risk category, soft cheeses with washed rinds (Munster, Maroilles), explains Laurent Guillier.
“If we couple these categories of cheese and the bacteria mentioned above, we have the combinations most at risk for the consumer”, he explains.
What means of prevention?
“A lot of things have already been done in the raw milk cheese sector to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination”, inform our expert. And to cite the hygiene measures on the farm around milking, the management of mastitis which are major sources of bacterial contamination, and hygiene practices during production, including sampling on cheeses. “Self-checks make it possible to detect a pathogenic bacterium and, if this is the case, to carry out a withdrawal-recall. A withdrawal amounts to not placing the product on the market, the recall consists of withdrawing a batch from the market (it has already left the workshop)”explains Laurent Guillier.
Raw milk cheeses: what precautionary rules for consumers?
“Even if a self-check on a raw milk cheese is negative, the risk 0 does not exist”,recalls Laurent Guillier. Also, it is recommended for fragile people – pregnant women, immunocompromised people, people over 65 and young children, especially under 5 – not to consume raw milk cheeses, with the exception of cheeses. pressed cooked like Gruyère or Comté. “These cheeses have a low level of risk because their ripening is very long”, explains our expert.
To limit the risk of bacterial contamination, it is also recommended to respect the expiry dates and to respect the storage conditions shown on the packaging or given by traders in the markets. Namely: if you cook raw cheeses well (tartiflette, oven-baked camembert, etc.), you eliminate the biological risk. “ANSES will continue its expertise on raw milk cheeses in order to find the most effective levers of action to further improve the safety of these products”, announces the scientific coordinator of the expert appraisal on the health risks linked to the consumption of milk cheeses.
Source :
Opinion of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety relating to the procedures for controlling the risk linked to the presence of microbiological hazards in cheeses and other dairy products made from raw milk, January 2022.
Read also:
- Is removing the cheese rind enough to protect against bacteria?
- Escherichia coli: the 6 foods most likely to harbor the bacteria