I like to imagine police had been following these guys for weeks after noting suspicious behavior, but were unable to crack the criminals' presumed code, "they keep talking about a big cheese heist and taking lots of cheddar - but what's the target, is it a bank or a museum or a jeweler?"
Nope, they were just talking about stealing cheese.
Procedures and ingredients quality are not respected in counterfeit products (for example it's acceptable, in the us, for grated parmesan to have cellulose/wood pulp in it) and they still sell you the stuff at a high price.
i don't think anyone died because of these products but if you take fake parmigiano it's a $2B market.
Prepackaged grated parmesan needs an anti-caking additive no matter where in the world you live. Cellulose isn't bad for you, in moderation. So the issue is not whether your prepackaged parmesan has cellulose added, it's how much was added.
If you don't like it then you should buy solid parmesan and grate it yourself. In the US or anywhere else.
It's also not something unique to Parmesan, all shredded cheese has additives to prevent it turning into a cheese ball again. Kind of the nature of shredded cheese
To people who want to use the mark or origin to distinguish between quality goods and garbage before they buy them instead of after they taste them. You know, the primary use of a mark of origin.
You may have noticed that you supposed the opposite of what I supposed, for sanity’s sake.
If you paid for Parmesan cheese and got something else, I’d say that’s already a problem. We are not even taking into consideration that counterfeit food products adhere to no food safety standards.
I guess real Parmesan cheese complies with the food safety regulations of Parma, while most knock off (for example) American brands will comply with the local food safety regulations.
I mean… I dunno, it isn’t as if I actually believe my country has sane regulations. But I’ve presumably already eaten lots of American sawdust in my powdered cheese products, how bad could it be for me? What kind of sawdust do they have in Parma?
Parmesano Reggiano has to come from the Parma region of Italy and is certified by some consortium of cheese makers I think. Same thing with San Marzano tomatoes.
There's not a problem per-se, but the issue is that in all reality you'd probably be getting an inferior product. The exclusivity is done so that consumers can be ensured that they are getting cheese from a specific area with specific criteria.
The same could be said about anything. Clothes, watches, cars, hell even medicine.
If it is indistinguishable, is it different? It starts to get a bit philosophical from there on in.
I think though fakes tend to be significantly worse quality because they want to make loads of profit. I can't see cheese fraudsters going to the same lengths of maturation and all that because why bother.
For the example Parmesan cheese vs PDO (Protected Designation of Origin, under European law) Parmesan Reggiano cheese, the differences are in flavour and texture. It is absolutely possible to make Parmesan that matches PDO Parmesan Reggiano cheese outside of that region, but if you don't have the stamp (or counterfeit the stamp), you can't charge a premium price.
The same applies to a laundry list of food ingredients and products, including wines, cheeses, teas, produce, and meat. PDO isn't the only such scheme, several countries have their own appelation programs.
From a counterfeiting perspective there are three major concerns - misleading the consumer, economic harm to the cheesemakers in the region of origin, and potential food safety.
In terms of misleading the consumer, mass market parmesan cheese is usually produced with pasteurized milk vs raw milk and cured for 10 months vs 24 months. It is often sold ground into a fine powder to conceal the lower quality texture, and the flavour profile is substantially different. When cooking with 10 month cured cheese vs 24 month cured cheese, there is a noticeable difference in how the cheese melts and incorporates into different foods which can result in downstream lower quality foods (in terms of presentation and flavour, nutritionally the differences are negligable).
In terms of economic harm, parmesan cheese is substantially cheaper to produce, and has a retail price as low as $~0.50/ounce. PDO Parmesan ranges in price from $~1.50/ounce for 2 year aged, and as high as $~10/ounce (note my prices are converted from CAD to USD, and based on prices from the cheese market near me, prices may vary by market). If a counterfeiter can sell parmesan as PDO Parmesan Reggiano, they command a significant margin, even if they sell it much cheaper than the retail price).
In terms of health risks, PDO and other Appelation designations often require audits or reviews of production process to ensure compliance and quality control. Fake PDO Parm made with unpasteurized milk and not handled properly can bring the risks of using raw milk to the consumer - properly made PDO Parm results in a cured and extremely low moisture product that should destroy most of the bacteria and molds. Even minor changes in the production process can make the resulting product unsafe or higher risk for consumption.
Louis Vuitton fake bag may look 1:1 from good enough distance yet for some reason people keep buying them... what's the problem supposed to be? And that's before going into topic of being European and actually appreciating heritage, place of origin, craft skills etc. that go into making one of these.
In 2014 EU put sanctions on exporting certain goods to Russia, and Russia put counter-sanctions on e.g. importing European cheese to Russia. But Russian people still wantef higher quality cheese, so smuggling cheese across the Finnish-Russian border was quite common in the years following. But this is only 100kg:
more typical since 2014 the situation of the goods like Norwegian salmon disappearing from the Russian market while the goods that were never there until 2014 like Belarussian salmon (while Belarussia is still landlocked :) quickly becoming available in large volumes on Russian market. Similarly with Armenian electronics which never been there until 2022.
Do you know about the maggot filled cheese from Sardinia, casu martzu? It is illegal in the EU but it is still sold illegally around the area of its inception. It's illegal because sometimes the maggots could survive in your intestines to cause damage.
Some high-impact reporting there from the BBC!
Also contains my favourite quote of the day:
"Westcombe Dairy's maturing cave is equipped with cheddar-turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner"
> The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist (French: vol de sirop d'érable du siècle, lit. 'maple syrup heist of the century') was the theft over several months in 2011 and 2012 of nearly 3,000 tonnes (3,000 long tons; 3,300 short tons) of maple syrup, valued at C$18.7 million (equivalent to C$24.1 million in 2023) from a storage facility in Quebec. The facility was operated by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (French: Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec, FPAQ) which represents 77 percent of the global maple syrup supply.[1]
To convert it to American, I think that is like $8/lb or so? So it is a little more expensive than Tillamoook (which is a decent, but definitely mass market, brand) but same order of magnitude.
Although I guess that must be the wholesale price.
While we're at it, I drove a small amount of Normandy Camembert through the Northern part of Alsace today, but it was strictly for personal consumption only and legally obtained from Carrefour.
Mystery how folks could spend GBP 11 for 250 g of Cheddar !?
How one would launder all that cheese? Even say having some big retailer involved, some customers would probably still recognize that the cheese is from that batch.
I imagine it will be smuggled out of the country immediately.
No cheese buyer at a large retailer in the UK would touch it. It’s not worth the risk.
Similarly at the artisan end of the market, it’s a small world (like the article says) - why would you risk your personal and commercial reputation buying stolen goods? You wouldn’t.
I wonder how they are going to smuggle such a gigantic quantity of cheese out of the country. It’s kind of hard to move 22 tonnes of anything without raising suspicion, and doing so in a hurry poses additional challenges.
I’m not disagreeing with you, but 22 tonnes is about 48,000 lbs, which is about the limit (or just over) of what a regular semi trailer can haul (at least in the US). So moving it likely isn’t much issue, but the selling it likely is
Keep hold of it for a while then when it has blown over sell a truckle here or there to an up-market restaurant, perhaps a few at a time for a small distributor etc.
Probably untraceable and entirely legit looking if you are just selling cheese. It's not like they are going to be trying to off load your "typical" high-value goods at silly low prices in pubs and car boot sales.
Small corner shops that buys a few legal pieces of cheese through officials channels, but buy the bulk on the black market for a fraction of the price.
Unlike jewels or greenbacks, you can get value out of cheddar over time by eating a cheese heavy diet. I imagine the tough part here is storing that much cheese for long enough to provide a large impact to your monthly grocery budget.
If you also saw the line:
> Westcombe Dairy's maturing cave is equipped with cheddar-turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner
And wanted to see it in action, here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDLJwmdonIo
Awesome!
That is a vastly more complex machine and action than I was expecting. Seems like there is more to the process than just flipping it over.
Another excuse for Michael Palin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1JWzyvv8A
Co-incidentally, Palin kept an office in Neal's Yard!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal%27s_Yard
The silent implication of a cheese black market is horrifying yet somewhat amusing.
Imagine trying to buy stolen wheels of Parmigianino or German cheese.
I like to imagine police had been following these guys for weeks after noting suspicious behavior, but were unable to crack the criminals' presumed code, "they keep talking about a big cheese heist and taking lots of cheddar - but what's the target, is it a bank or a museum or a jeweler?"
Nope, they were just talking about stealing cheese.
Counterfeiting is a major concern. Parmigianino Reggiano producers have been testing laser activated RFID chips for traceability.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/cheese-tracking-chips-parmesan
https://p-chip.com/about/
> Counterfeiting is a major concern.
To who? Suppose I buy some "Parmesan cheese" and it tastes exactly like Parmesan cheese. What's the problem supposed to be?
In what sense is the cheese counterfeit at all?
Procedures and ingredients quality are not respected in counterfeit products (for example it's acceptable, in the us, for grated parmesan to have cellulose/wood pulp in it) and they still sell you the stuff at a high price. i don't think anyone died because of these products but if you take fake parmigiano it's a $2B market.
https://www.foodandwine.com/news/amount-wood-pulp-grated-par...
https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/parmesan-che...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2012/11/19/the-dar...
Prepackaged grated parmesan needs an anti-caking additive no matter where in the world you live. Cellulose isn't bad for you, in moderation. So the issue is not whether your prepackaged parmesan has cellulose added, it's how much was added.
If you don't like it then you should buy solid parmesan and grate it yourself. In the US or anywhere else.
It's also not something unique to Parmesan, all shredded cheese has additives to prevent it turning into a cheese ball again. Kind of the nature of shredded cheese
To people who want to use the mark or origin to distinguish between quality goods and garbage before they buy them instead of after they taste them. You know, the primary use of a mark of origin.
You may have noticed that you supposed the opposite of what I supposed, for sanity’s sake.
If you paid for Parmesan cheese and got something else, I’d say that’s already a problem. We are not even taking into consideration that counterfeit food products adhere to no food safety standards.
I guess real Parmesan cheese complies with the food safety regulations of Parma, while most knock off (for example) American brands will comply with the local food safety regulations.
I mean… I dunno, it isn’t as if I actually believe my country has sane regulations. But I’ve presumably already eaten lots of American sawdust in my powdered cheese products, how bad could it be for me? What kind of sawdust do they have in Parma?
> If you paid for Parmesan cheese and got something else, I’d say that’s already a problem.
Kind of an ironic claim in a discussion of Cheddar cheese.
Parmesano Reggiano has to come from the Parma region of Italy and is certified by some consortium of cheese makers I think. Same thing with San Marzano tomatoes.
There's not a problem per-se, but the issue is that in all reality you'd probably be getting an inferior product. The exclusivity is done so that consumers can be ensured that they are getting cheese from a specific area with specific criteria.
The same could be said about anything. Clothes, watches, cars, hell even medicine.
If it is indistinguishable, is it different? It starts to get a bit philosophical from there on in.
I think though fakes tend to be significantly worse quality because they want to make loads of profit. I can't see cheese fraudsters going to the same lengths of maturation and all that because why bother.
What makes you think it will actually taste exactly the same?
For the example Parmesan cheese vs PDO (Protected Designation of Origin, under European law) Parmesan Reggiano cheese, the differences are in flavour and texture. It is absolutely possible to make Parmesan that matches PDO Parmesan Reggiano cheese outside of that region, but if you don't have the stamp (or counterfeit the stamp), you can't charge a premium price.
The same applies to a laundry list of food ingredients and products, including wines, cheeses, teas, produce, and meat. PDO isn't the only such scheme, several countries have their own appelation programs.
From a counterfeiting perspective there are three major concerns - misleading the consumer, economic harm to the cheesemakers in the region of origin, and potential food safety.
In terms of misleading the consumer, mass market parmesan cheese is usually produced with pasteurized milk vs raw milk and cured for 10 months vs 24 months. It is often sold ground into a fine powder to conceal the lower quality texture, and the flavour profile is substantially different. When cooking with 10 month cured cheese vs 24 month cured cheese, there is a noticeable difference in how the cheese melts and incorporates into different foods which can result in downstream lower quality foods (in terms of presentation and flavour, nutritionally the differences are negligable).
In terms of economic harm, parmesan cheese is substantially cheaper to produce, and has a retail price as low as $~0.50/ounce. PDO Parmesan ranges in price from $~1.50/ounce for 2 year aged, and as high as $~10/ounce (note my prices are converted from CAD to USD, and based on prices from the cheese market near me, prices may vary by market). If a counterfeiter can sell parmesan as PDO Parmesan Reggiano, they command a significant margin, even if they sell it much cheaper than the retail price).
In terms of health risks, PDO and other Appelation designations often require audits or reviews of production process to ensure compliance and quality control. Fake PDO Parm made with unpasteurized milk and not handled properly can bring the risks of using raw milk to the consumer - properly made PDO Parm results in a cured and extremely low moisture product that should destroy most of the bacteria and molds. Even minor changes in the production process can make the resulting product unsafe or higher risk for consumption.
Louis Vuitton fake bag may look 1:1 from good enough distance yet for some reason people keep buying them... what's the problem supposed to be? And that's before going into topic of being European and actually appreciating heritage, place of origin, craft skills etc. that go into making one of these.
In 2014 EU put sanctions on exporting certain goods to Russia, and Russia put counter-sanctions on e.g. importing European cheese to Russia. But Russian people still wantef higher quality cheese, so smuggling cheese across the Finnish-Russian border was quite common in the years following. But this is only 100kg:
https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/oltermanni-salakuljettaj...
more typical since 2014 the situation of the goods like Norwegian salmon disappearing from the Russian market while the goods that were never there until 2014 like Belarussian salmon (while Belarussia is still landlocked :) quickly becoming available in large volumes on Russian market. Similarly with Armenian electronics which never been there until 2022.
Do you know about the maggot filled cheese from Sardinia, casu martzu? It is illegal in the EU but it is still sold illegally around the area of its inception. It's illegal because sometimes the maggots could survive in your intestines to cause damage.
Eating food that can eat you back ... a real ouroboros.
I wonder if this is the start of a new criminal market and if there are any heavies involved or the big players involved?
Any one know if any cheese is showing up on the dark nets?
It's not illegal, illegal so it should get through the post easily and use refrigeration transport and less hassle if you get pulled over by the cops.
Some countries like New Zealand are pretty strict with dairy imports so trying to get brunost from Norway...
Let's start investigating Gromit!
It's only 22 tons, we could probably polish that off over a weekend.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is due for release this month, so they'll be available.
Current Working Title: Wheel of Feta
Possibly Russia, where it might be desired but not possible to buy officially?
Some high-impact reporting there from the BBC! Also contains my favourite quote of the day: "Westcombe Dairy's maturing cave is equipped with cheddar-turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner"
This machine needs its own post:
"cheddar-turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hnQnTRIfws
See also perhaps:
> The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist (French: vol de sirop d'érable du siècle, lit. 'maple syrup heist of the century') was the theft over several months in 2011 and 2012 of nearly 3,000 tonnes (3,000 long tons; 3,300 short tons) of maple syrup, valued at C$18.7 million (equivalent to C$24.1 million in 2023) from a storage facility in Quebec. The facility was operated by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (French: Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec, FPAQ) which represents 77 percent of the global maple syrup supply.[1]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Hei...
300000£/22000kg≈13.6£/kg
Not sure what they mean by “high value” here.
Well, the whole block is still pretty expensive.
To convert it to American, I think that is like $8/lb or so? So it is a little more expensive than Tillamoook (which is a decent, but definitely mass market, brand) but same order of magnitude.
Although I guess that must be the wholesale price.
Perhaps read beyond the first sentence.
> Neal's Yard Dairy sells Hafod Welsh for £12.90 for a 300g piece, while Westcombe costs £7.15 for 250g and Pitchfork is priced at £11 for 250g.
Very British :)
This is up there with the Canadian maple syrup theft in the "Crimes most befitting their country" list.
I shudder to think what the USA's would be, but strong chance it involves Florida Man.
While we're at it, I drove a small amount of Normandy Camembert through the Northern part of Alsace today, but it was strictly for personal consumption only and legally obtained from Carrefour.
Mystery how folks could spend GBP 11 for 250 g of Cheddar !?
Is it possible that Scotland Yard does not have sniffing dogs ?
Oh no, me cheese
How one would launder all that cheese? Even say having some big retailer involved, some customers would probably still recognize that the cheese is from that batch.
I imagine it will be smuggled out of the country immediately.
No cheese buyer at a large retailer in the UK would touch it. It’s not worth the risk.
Similarly at the artisan end of the market, it’s a small world (like the article says) - why would you risk your personal and commercial reputation buying stolen goods? You wouldn’t.
I wonder how they are going to smuggle such a gigantic quantity of cheese out of the country. It’s kind of hard to move 22 tonnes of anything without raising suspicion, and doing so in a hurry poses additional challenges.
I imagine they would have to do it Caerphilly.
I’m not disagreeing with you, but 22 tonnes is about 48,000 lbs, which is about the limit (or just over) of what a regular semi trailer can haul (at least in the US). So moving it likely isn’t much issue, but the selling it likely is
But once you've got it out of the country, where then? Would French cheese buyers take it? Or do you have to go to Russia?
Cheese keeps. No rush.
Keep hold of it for a while then when it has blown over sell a truckle here or there to an up-market restaurant, perhaps a few at a time for a small distributor etc.
Probably untraceable and entirely legit looking if you are just selling cheese. It's not like they are going to be trying to off load your "typical" high-value goods at silly low prices in pubs and car boot sales.
Small corner shops that buys a few legal pieces of cheese through officials channels, but buy the bulk on the black market for a fraction of the price.
This is pretty niche cheddar. I doubt it’s being sold at a corner shop alongside warm cans of Carlsberg!
Unlike jewels or greenbacks, you can get value out of cheddar over time by eating a cheese heavy diet. I imagine the tough part here is storing that much cheese for long enough to provide a large impact to your monthly grocery budget.