EUROPE – The European Union has approved European Dairy Association (EDA) guidance for “cheese as raw material” towards the high safety and quality of cheese in the processing industry.
It also approved the organization for the processed cheese sector, Assifonte’s “Good Manufacturing Practice Guidelines for Processed Cheese”- a major for food safety, consumer protection and product quality across the Union.
“The EDA guidelines for ‘cheese as raw material’ are a concise and state-of-the-art compendium on the high safety and quality of cheese as raw material within the processing industry,” said Alexander Anton, secretary general of EDA and of Assifonte.
“These guidelines are completed by the Assifonte “Good Manufacturing Guidelines Practice for Processed Cheese”, which set an EU benchmark and a best practice manual for the processed cheese industry.”
Both guidelines, that will be translated into all 23 official EU languages, underline the global leadership of the EU cheese and processed cheese industry also when it comes to safety and quality.
The EU Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain unanimously approved the EDA Guidance for ‘Cheese as raw material’ and Assifonte “Good Manufacturing Practice Guidelines for Processed Cheese” in its last meeting.
Assifonte chair Ludwig Rupp also welcomed the move.
“In other words, the European Commission and the Member States have endorsed this major step for food safety, consumer protection and product quality across the Union,” he said.
“This is the fruit of over ten years of concentrated work from committed cheese experts from EDA and I want to highlight specifically the work of Claus Heggum from the Danish Dairy Board, who really drove this project from the very beginning.”
He added that that was also the result of the EDA and Assifonte secretariat’s high-level commitment, over the past 18 months on the project.
These two guidelines will be published in the near future on EU Commission’s official food hygiene guidance platform.
