No Whey!: Certain Soft Ripened Cheeses Banned From Import to China
Who doesn’t like cheese (whether you call it kaas, fromage, or formaggio)? These shining dairy-based products with a wide range of textures, and flavors, some even with herbs and spices. A sip of wine with a bite of cheddar or bleu cheese can sweep away the exhaust of a hard day of work, let alone brie cheese fondue, cheese platters, and cheese-heavy burgers and pizzas. Or they could, rather.
Cheese lovers, brace yourselves, there’s a catastrophe on the way.
After temporarily banning all British cheese imports in 2014 due to “food inspectors complaining about hygiene standards at an unnamed UK dairy," BBC reported, a letter was recently leaked via Sinodis – a large distributor of imported and local food products from 14 different countries based in Shanghai and founded in 1996 – to its “valued customers.” The letter states that, “we received an announcement from the Chinese official authorities saying that some cheese products containing certain molds temporarily cannot be imported in China.” Obeying the importation regulations and instructions, they "have stopped all importation of the involved products since August 23.”
A foreign chef working in Beijing confirmed, "Yes, all soft ripened cheeses are not allowed anymore in China, including Brie, bleu cheese, goat cheese, and more. China has no guidelines for those cheeses and their bacteria, so they have decided to just eliminate the cheeses until guidelines are established, and that can be god knows when." This information has also been confirmed by several French restaurants in Beijing.
On their WeChat, Cheesepublic explained that the official reason is these cheeses contain “too much bacteria, that’s why it's been banned.” So what cheeses are banned?
- Fourme d’Ambert
- Chevre Sainte Maure
- Brie
- Camembert
- Roquefort
- Epoisse
- Vieux Pané
- Saint Nectaire
- Perail Papillon
- Livarot
- Soumaintrain
"The other cheeses are not impacted by this recent change, and we will thus continue to import them and supply them to our customers as done in the past,” said Sinodis’ letter. Cheese Republic provided the list of surviving cheeses, including Comté (6, 12, and 36 months), Beaufort, Tartare, Saint Morêt, mozzarella, and the whole family of hard cheeses, such as Gruyère, Emmentaler, Tomme, Monk head, Manchego, Murcia and the raclette.
A similar ban took place in the US in 2014 and received scorn from the cheese-selling community for its apparent arbitrary ruling and short-sightedness.
We checked Sinodis, and Brie cheese is still available on their website, while two Camembert cheeses are already out of stock on cheeserepublic.com. So wipe your tears, run to the nearest April Gourmet, Jenny Lou, BHG, or the local cheese shop near your home (think Le Fromager de Pekin or Chez Gérard), and hoard them like there’s no tomorrow.
More stories by this author here.
Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure
Photos: starmarket, wikimedia (1), tastyislandhawaii
