UK restaurants and deli’s are on the verge of a cheese crisis as many are feared to be on the brink of running out of some of the nation’s favourite cheeses. Eateries face running out of Italian buffalo mozzarella, French brie and fresh goat’s cheese after a ban was imposed on unpasteurised cheeses being imported from France and Italy.
The UK introduced a temporary ban on cheeses made after May 23, following an outbreak of lumpy skin disease among cattle in the two countries. Suppliers can still import unpasteurised cheeses made before May 23 and pasteurised cheeses. However, this requires paperwork on the production processes.
Upmarket cheese importers are claiming that border officials are unable or unwilling to read the documents in French and Italian, which means lorries full of the UK’s favourite cheeses are being held until documents are provided in English.
They alleged by the time the cheeses are given the all clear, they “have to be binned”.
“Every week, our lorries are getting delayed. Even though they’re chilled, it’s not in the right environment and things come in and have to be binned,” Patricia Michelson, the founder of La Fromagerie, a retailer and distributor of fine continental cheeses, told The Times. La Fromagerie supplies more than 100 upmarket restaurants, including Gordon Ramsay’s site in Chelsea and has three award-winning shops in the capital.
Ms Michelson has warned that restaurants across the country will slowly begin to run out of stock.
She said: “At the moment, we can’t supply all the lovely, soft cow’s milk cheeses like Camembert and brie. If people think that they can get what they want now, they won’t, because everywhere will be slowly running out of stock. From Monday we will only be able to offer an English brie-style cheese.”
Logistics companies are also up in arms at the situation as it is driving up costs as their drivers are getting stuck at the border.
Defra said the restrictions should not have a “significant impact” because most cheeses consumed in the UK were pasteurised.
The department told The Times: “This government will do whatever it takes to protect British farmers and their herds from disease. We have strengthened protections by temporarily suspending imports of a small amount of products from Italy and France.”
Dining and Cooking