The Ottawa Citizen reports that two dozen people in Eastern Ontario became ill after eating unpasteurized cheese that a farmer was not legally allowed to distribute.
According to the story, the cheese was made by a "mobile cheese maker," hired by the dairy farmer to visit the farm with his factory on wheels.
In early June, the farmer, in St. Pascal-Baylon, 30 kilometres east of Ottawa, hired one of five travelling cheese makers who operate in Eastern Ontario. This product was later distributed – and sold – to neighbours, friends, relatives and classmates of a child of the farmer.
The unpasteurized cheese caused several cases of bacterial infection. Symptoms included diarrhea, stomach cramps, fevers and headaches.
While the Eastern Ontario Health Unit strongly recommends the consumption of only pasteurized milk products, in Ontario, people who make unpasteurized cheese on their farms can possess and eat what they make. However, selling or distributing such cheese – which includes even giving it away – is illegal under provincial legislation.
The story notes that unlike raw milk itself, which has been illegal to distribute in Canada since 1991, cheese made from raw milk – as far as Health Canada is concerned – is "allowed for sale and considered safe because the manufacturing process for cheese helps to eliminate many pathogens found in raw milk."
The tricky part about the case of the St. Pascal-Baylon farmer is that while the farmer himself broke the law, the mobile cheese maker did not.
While the Eastern Ontario Health Unit has identified five mobile cheese-making operations, it can’t do much more than educate them about the risks and their responsibilities. Caroline Kuate, food safety program co-ordinator at the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, was quoted as saying, "These operators are not within our jurisdiction. They are under no one’s jurisdiction. This is a case where they fall in the cracks."