Cheese stores say QUEBEC's rules go whey too far

24.oct.09
TheStar.com

MONTREAL --Since a listeriosis crisis sent Quebec into a frenzy last
fall, you could cut the tension between cheesemakers and the provincial
regulator with, well, a cheese knife.
Producers say the crisis was overblown, with millions of dollars in
cheese thrown out. And the reaction since has been overkill, many add,
especially those who use unpasteurized milk, said to make more
flavourful cheese.
"We have the impression that the government wants raw-milk cheese
producers to disappear," said Louis Arsenault, co-owner of La Fromagerie
des Grondines and president of the Artisanal Cheesemaker's Association
of Quebec.
"In wanting to protect the citizen, (they) are destroying the sector."
Arsenault says half the raw-milk cheese producers have abandoned their
passion and turned to pasteurization. Others are on shaky financial
ground.
Artisans denounce the "severe" and now monthly inspections, as well as
Quebec's strict microbiological standards. Some question the testing
methods of MAPAQ, the provincial ministry of agriculture, fisheries and
food.
"MAPAQ should be the most beautiful ministry, the one that nourishes the
people," Arsenault said. "But now it's more (about) repression than
development."
The ministry says its measures were necessary to ensure a clean industry
and to reassure the public.
"There are some cheesemakers or individuals who are unsatisfied with the
interventions MAPAQ has made," said Jean-Pierre Mailhot, a ministry
director. "But there are many more reports of positive experiences."
The cheese war began in fall 2008, when Quebec faced a listeriosis
outbreak, traced to cheese. Dozens fell ill and a man died. Two cheese
producers were fingered, and MAPAQ made hundreds throw out 27,000
kilograms of cheese.
Agents visited the Fromagerie Atwater and tossed $100,000 of cheese. A
subsequent 13-day quarantine led to the loss of another $150,000, and
the yellow tape closing the cheese counter made his shop "look like a
murder scene," owner Gilles Jourdenais recalled.
Quebec's ombudsperson 
Patrick Chaput of Fromagerie Chaput posted his MAPAQ test results online
to prove to skeptical peers that raw cheese can be made within Quebec's
norms.
Though MAPAQ can be "very authoritarian," Chaput says, most of his
criticism is reserved for fellow artisans who want to sell their
products at a higher price but "don't work hard to make a cheese that
respects the standards."