Big LOL as China bans European cheeses for health safety reasons
Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 6:16 pm
Hard times for expats in China. Chinese officials have decided that certain cheeses made in Europe are health risks. Another one for the "you can't make this up" thread.
Whiff of discontent as China bans imports of soft European cheese
Delicacies such as brie and gorgonzola contain ‘too much bacteria’, officials say, sending expats scrambling to buy up remaining stocks
- Soft European cheese has fallen on hard times in China. Customs officials have banned a host of soft, mould-ripened cheese for containing “too much bacteria”, with authorities reportedly alarmed the mould contained colonies of bacteria that had not been officially approved.
The ban mainly affects French and Italian cheese, including brie, camembert, gorgonzola and roquefort, as well as the English delicacy stilton.
Sinodis, a distributor of foreign-based cheeses in Shanghai, sent a letter to customers announcing “cheese products containing certain moulds cannot temporarily be imported in China”. The company has stopped importing a laundry list of nearly 50 kinds of cheese since 23 August. The ban started in July in some cities, but was expanded nationwide this week.
“There is no good reason for the ban, because China considers the same cheese safe if produced in China,” William Fingleton, a spokesman for the delegation of the European Union to China, said in an email. “This effectively means that China is banning famous and traditional European cheeses that have been safely imported and consumed in China for decades. The entire Chinese market for soft cheeses is now closed.”
More here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ean-cheese
Whiff of discontent as China bans imports of soft European cheese
Delicacies such as brie and gorgonzola contain ‘too much bacteria’, officials say, sending expats scrambling to buy up remaining stocks
- Soft European cheese has fallen on hard times in China. Customs officials have banned a host of soft, mould-ripened cheese for containing “too much bacteria”, with authorities reportedly alarmed the mould contained colonies of bacteria that had not been officially approved.
The ban mainly affects French and Italian cheese, including brie, camembert, gorgonzola and roquefort, as well as the English delicacy stilton.
Sinodis, a distributor of foreign-based cheeses in Shanghai, sent a letter to customers announcing “cheese products containing certain moulds cannot temporarily be imported in China”. The company has stopped importing a laundry list of nearly 50 kinds of cheese since 23 August. The ban started in July in some cities, but was expanded nationwide this week.
“There is no good reason for the ban, because China considers the same cheese safe if produced in China,” William Fingleton, a spokesman for the delegation of the European Union to China, said in an email. “This effectively means that China is banning famous and traditional European cheeses that have been safely imported and consumed in China for decades. The entire Chinese market for soft cheeses is now closed.”
More here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ean-cheese