FSA News Item, 24 May 2007
For a copy of the guidance document, see Cheese Guidance. See also related news item: 24 May 2007 "Application of EU hygiene rules in the dairy sector"
The Agency today issued guidance to help the UK dairy industry and local authorities to ensure that cheese recovery is carried out in accordance with food hygiene legislation.
In the context of the guidance, the term 'cheese recovery' covers the following handling, preparation and/or processing procedures of cheese for human consumption:
The guidance, which should be regarded as precautionary in nature pending European level consideration of the public health and legislation issues, can be found at the link below.
The guidance has been developed in conjunction with Dairy UK Ltd, a trade body for the dairy sector, and food authority and industry stakeholders, who provided details of current practices. The guidance was also informed by information on some of the handling and manufacturing processes employed by companies who use recovered cheese as a raw material.
The guidance has been issued following our request in 2006, when we asked enforcement authorities to identify and notify us of any cheese recovery operations in their area and ensure that the activities are approved under the terms of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004.
A copy of the guidance will be sent to all UK local authorities and to all companies we know to be approved to undertake cheese recovery.