Imported Milk Could Change The Taste of British Cheese
FARMING UK - The character of regional British cheeses such as Stilton and Cheddar could be under threat from the predicted UK milk shortage according to Country Channel TV, the internet based TV channel for people who care about the countryside.
30 August 2007
2 minute read
"Buying milk from outside the region where a cheese is made will fundamentally change the nature of the cheese produced since grazing pastures and milk composition will be very different."
Roger Crudge, of Crudges Farm Organic Cheese in Kingham
Paul Aitken, CEO of the Country Channel said: "In the course of programme making over the summer, we have been talking to a number of dairy farmers and cheese makers and there are increasing fears that imported milk will have to be used by cheese makers who buy in milk to make their cheese. And this is course could mean a real threat to the taste and characteristics of many of Britain's favourite regional cheeses."
Cheese maker Roger Crudge, of Crudges Farm Organic Cheese in Kingham, Oxfordshire believes that with domestic supplies under threat, some cheese makers may have no alternative but to buy milk from further afield. "Buying milk from outside the region where a cheese is made will fundamentally change the nature of the cheese produced since grazing pastures and milk composition will be very different."
The worry over supplies is backed by comment from father and son dairy farmers Peter and Stephen Clarke from Tingewick, near Buckingham, who have been in milk production since 1967.
They believe that another reason for the predicted shortage and consequent prices rises is that the dairy industry of the UK is run by the 'Home Guard' - a brigade of older farmers leading an industry that is not recruiting young people to its ranks.
The Country Channel can give you access to these interviews and arrange for you to visit the farmers concerned. Paul Aitken of the Country Channel is available to make further comment on the Channel's role in highlighting issues of concern to people who live and work in the country.
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