An Alberta cheese business is on hold until it meets a list of upgrades to its facilities after E. coli 0157 was found in cheese made with unpasteurized milk.
Joanne Koopmans, one of the partners in Eyot Creek Farm, said the farms’ partners would meet to discuss the list of “strong suggestions” for repairs from Alberta Agriculture Jan. 24.
“We have quite a list of things we have to fix, of things they consider mandatory before they will allow us to produce cheese again,” said Koopmans of Leduc.
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Upgrades to the facility range from new flooring and better lighting to a change of the boards on which the cheese is aged.
Alberta Agriculture also suggested using pasteurized milk to make the specialty gouda cheese sold at farmers markets and local health stores.
Alberta Agriculture’s food safety division officials were not available for comment.
There is no clear understanding how 11 people became sick from E. coli bacteria in the cheese in December and January.
Koopmans said they believe at least eight of the people got sick from eating free cheese samples from a tray at the Strathcona Farmers Market believed to be contaminated by customers’ hands. This week the Capital Health authority found the bacteria in a package of the farm cheese.
The Koopmans, who use 10,000 kilograms of milk a year to make gouda cheese, are reluctant to switch to pasteurized milk. It’s the first time in 18 years there have been concerns and there is still no direct link to the milk or the farm, said Ted Koopmans.
“At this point no one really knows where it came from and it’s still a question whether it originated on the farm here. They’ve done sampling of surfaces and the milk samples that have all come back negative,” he said.
Pasteurization changes the taste of the cheese. Some of the best cheeses in the world are made from unpasteurized milk, they said. It is not illegal to make cheese from unpasteurized milk.
“We’re not sure where we’re going to be heading if we make changes and continue ahead with cheese making,” said Ted.
The milk from their 60-cow dairy is shipped through quota. About 40 percent of the farm income comes from the cheese operation and it keeps four families in business.
The Koopmans are still unclear what will happen with the 6,000 kg of cheese, worth about $75,000, now in inventory.
Ted said the strong support from the farmers market customers has kept the family going since the bacteria were first discovered.
“We’ve had a lot of support from our customers. We have a lot of customer loyalty. We’ve been in it for 18 years and selling it at markets, you build personal relationships with customers. That’s one of the strengths of farmers markets. People enter each others lives more than just picking things off the shelves,” he said.
