Free Republic

An FDA crackdown on the import of the French cheese mimolette has foodies crying foul. “Isigny was alerted by importers that the cheese was being put on “FDA hold,” meaning it could not be moved from its arrival warehouse until further inspection. After that, he said, the cheese received the more damning label of “detained,” meaning it could not be sold in the U.S. The reason given was that the inspectors found cheese mites in the rind, which can cause allergies, and which made the product “adulterated,” and consists of a “decomposed substance otherwise unfit for food.” (Mites, related to...

Charles de Gaulle famously bemoaned the difficulties involved in running a country with 246 different types of cheese. But it seems world famous Gallic varieties including camembert, roquefort and brie are increasingly falling out of favour. Although the average Frenchman still eats almost a pound of cheese per week, making the country the second biggest consumer of the food in Europe after Greece, it is increasingly likely to be a processed foreign variety. New figures show raw-milk cheeses from rural France, which until the Second World War accounted for nearly all consumption, now make up just seven per cent of...

03/09/2005 The Japanese are going wild for a certain type of French cheese after a leading politician complained the food was “hard and dry” when it was served up to him during a high level meeting The former Japanese prime minister complained to the media that the country’s current premier Junichiro Koizumi had served up only beer and “dried out cheese” when the pair met to discuss Koizumi ‘s reported desire to dissolve parliament and call snap elections. "He gave me foreign beer and some dried out cheese, so hard you couldn't bite into it," complained Mori. The politician was...