The burial of 80Kg of Roquefort - Page 2
Studd then changed tack; in January 2002, he imported the aforementioned 80 kilograms of Roquefor t to confront what he saw as ambiguities in Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s guidelines. He hoped a regulation requiring cheese to be “made from pasteurised milk or the equivalent in bacteria reduction” allowed room for Roquefor t to meet the limits on bacteria in ways other than pasteurisation.
But, seized and impounded by quarantine service’s imported-food officials, the 80 kilograms of R oquefort never even reached the FSANZ testing table, with officials saying it was much about the manufacturing process as the end result. In a last ditch effort in April 2003, Studd appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on the technical interpretation of regulations governing “failed foods”.
Finally, on September 18, 2003, with Studd feeling both the Roquefort and the regulations governing it were long past their use-by date, the AAT rejected his appeal and ordered him to destroy the cheese that had, by then, been impounded for 21 months.
It was the end of an $80,000 legal fight. The guidelines were clear on destruction of impounded cheeses
- supervised “deep burial” at a public landfill was required so two weeks later, the Roquefort, draped in a tricolore, was taken by hearse for burial at Brooklyn tip while La Marseillaise played, and the cameras rolled.
Two years later, after negotiations between embarrassed French and Australian trade officials, the 11-year ban on importing Roquefort was lifted. And early next year (March 2008), FSANZ is expected to release its findings of a review into raw-milk cheese production in Australia.
