Many raw cheeses on the market are not truly raw. How to know if the brands you buy are on the up and up with no deceptive labeling.
In yet another case of labeling tricks and deception where store-bought food is concerned, some brands of raw cheese produced in the United States and sold at healthfood stores and specialty shops are anything but.
Organic Valley, the corporate behemoth that went to the Dark Side in 2010 when it banned its member farms from selling raw milk to the local community, is one of the worst offenders of this loophole in the USDA regulations. (1)
According to Federal Law 7 (CFR 58.438):
If the cheese is labeled as pasteurized, the milk shall be pasteurized by subjecting every particle of milk to a minimum temperature of 161 degrees Fahrenheit for not less than 15 [fifteen] seconds or by any other acceptable combination of temperature and time treatment approved by the Administrator. (2)
For FLUID PRODUCTS, “vat pasteurization” is defined as heating at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes; heating at 161 degrees for at least 15 seconds is called “high temperature short time pasteurization” [Federal Law 7 CFR 58.101]. (3)
What does this mean in layman’s terms?
It means that any cheese where the milk is heated to a temperature under 161 degrees Fahrenheit for less than 15 seconds could be called “raw” and labeled as such!
In 2010, Organic Valley admitted to capitalizing on this loophole. They called their raw cheese “subpasteurized” on their website, while failing to identify just how close subpasteurized is to actual pasteurization temperature. Sadly (but not surprisingly), they have now erased this page. (4)
Subpasteurization or “thermization” still heats the milk to an obscenely high temperature (typically 135°F to 158°F for about 15-20 seconds), which destroys nutrition as well as ALL probiotics, and enzymes.
Calling such a product “raw” is not only deceptive, it is downright insulting to the sensibilities and intelligence of its customers.
When too many people found out about the labeling bait and switch, they simply removed the page.
It seems par for the course that corporate America can just wipe history whenever it likes.
I saw the page with the “subpasteurization” wording with my own eyes back in 2010 … I should have taken a screenshot, but I didn’t yet fully realize back then how underhanded these companies truly are! 😠
Pseudo Raw Cheese
According to Miller’s Bio Farm, the fine print on Organic Valley’s “raw” cheese now says the following:
“Heated to 158F for 15 seconds”. (5)
So, the greenwashing is still happening 15 years later after my original article on the subject revealed the scam.
No apologies, no changing of their errant ways … only subterfuge and covering of their tracks.
While Organic Valley is no doubt the worst offender of this regulatory loophole, any other corporately produced raw cheese sold in stores and manufactured in the United States is also likely heated to subpasteurization temperatures that denature the raw milk.
Low Heat Necessary in Cheesemaking
Now, don’t get me wrong. SOME heating of milk is necessary during the cheesemaking process.
But the threshold is low and does not harm probiotics, enzymes or nutrients.
Mesophilic cultures work at temps ranging from 62–102F. The most common temp for this type of culture is around 90F. They are used to make many types of cheese, including cheddar, gouda, chèvre, muenster, and camembert.
Thermophilic cultures work at temps ranging from 104–112F. They are used to make cheeses like mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, swiss, and romano. (6)
What Brands of Raw Cheese Are Legit?
I researched another popular raw cheese brand (Grazier) and discovered that they also thermalize the milk (to 135°F) before making the cheese.
Thus, Sierra Nevada’s Grazier line of raw cheeses is taking advantage of the Federal pasteurization loophole as well.
On a positive note, a small dairy in my community which sells raw goat cheese locally in stores was very upfront and forthright with their answers about how the cheese is produced.
This dairy does truly produce raw cheese as the milk is only warmed to 98°F, which is well within the limits for enzyme and nutrient preservation.
How to Know if “Raw” Cheese is Truly Unheated
The lesson to be learned is that the best way to be sure that the cheese you buy comes from truly raw milk is to ideally buy from a small dairy farm that specializes in cheesemaking and to talk to the farmer yourself.
To find a family dairy near you, check out the Real Milk website or contact your local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation to obtain a list of locally produced goods.
If you don’t have a local dairy farm near you that makes cheese, contact the Weston A. Price Foundation and order the annually updated Shopping Guide.
This handy little brochure fits in your pocket or purse and lists many small farms across North America where you can mail-order truly raw cheese.
Many thanks to Pete Kennedy, Esq. and the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund for tracking down the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) references for this article.
(1) Organic Valley Capitulates on Raw Milk
(2) Code of Federal Regulations. Cheese from Pasteurized Milk
(3) Code of Federal Regulations. Meaning of Words (Fluid Milk)
(4) Page now missing where Organic Valley admits that it’s “raw cheeses” are “sub-pasteurized”
(5, 6) Is your raw cheese actually raw? Or has it been greenwashed?
If that’s your only option, then yes eat the cheese 🙂 Poor quaity cheese is better than no cheese at all.
My family and I don’t really like the taste of truly raw cheese plus it’s hard to get. So we just eat Kerrygold cheese that I get in bulk at Costco. :/
Sarah, are you stating that any of the items here are false and therefore this cheese is no better an option than the other garbage in the store? http://organicvalley.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/organicvalley.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=104
For some of us who follow WAPF guidelines about as much as possible this is hard news to swallow. We’ve locally sourced just about everything but the cheese option just isn’t available for us outside of the Organic Valley options. Should we then skip cheese entirely? I’d really like to know what you would recommend in such a case.
I think what OV is saying is that the milk is heated to a temperature that kills everything. But the problem is most people who buy raw milk cheese are buying it to get the beneficial enzymes and bacteria in the milk. I know that to make raw milk cheese you have to heat the milk to about 90 degrees. That temperature does not kill the enzymes and bacteria. Obviously, the labeling is misleading.
I was very surprised to find that the raw milk cheese from Grafton Village Cheese in Vermont is heated to 152 degrees, so there really is nothing beneficial about eating it.
I wish I had know this before spending 7-8 dollars a lb. the last 2 years.
Sarah, do not lose perspective as many have on this site. Sure, truly raw cheese is best and I personally eat it since it’s available to me in San Diego. But cooked cheese is absolutely fine and healthy, just not as therapeutic. You can get your enzymes from all your other raw foods. Not every single food you eat needs to have enzymes present. Cooked food is absolutely fine and healthy. How about beans, how about grains, how about herbal teas? Are those eaten raw? I am a seasoned clinical nutritionist and healer. Cooked foods are ok. I think once a day is a good goal, but more is ok too depending on the person’s health and situation. The denaturing of some of the protein is not as bad as people think it is, in face, i have observed in many many cases that cooked cheese is easier to digest than raw cheese! Especially if it is aged much longer such as a year. Long aging, in my opinion, creates an alchemy and transformation of the cheese that makes it very easy to digest and also dramatically increases its beneficial bacteria. The problem with truly raw cheeses is that they are usually only aged for 30 or 60 days. That is very young for a cheese and that’s why they don’t taste great. So yes, absolutely stick to your OV cheese which is an excellent cheese. They are not being deceptive. Because the milk they make their cheese with was not pasteurized, by law they must state on the label that it is raw. They are following the law so they don’t get shut down, plain and simple. Plus, their cheese tastes great! Big F deal, it’s not truly raw. Get over it, people.
CLARIFICATION: my point above was that cheese is acceptable if it’s not truly raw. my point was not to necessarily promote Organic Valley’s cheese or company. Sarah Smith’s question was about whether to eat her OV cheese or not. I was not aware of Organic Valley’s actions about raw milk farmers. It stinks and I will boycott OV products from here on out. I only buy their heavy whipping cream which I love in coffee. It’s out now. Thanks Sarah HHEconomist. Peace
Better to buy pasteurized cheese from a small farm, than fake raw cheese from a big operation like Organic Valley.
You don’t want to do that as the subquality milk is what is used by these big commercial operations to make this fake raw cheese.
When you live in an area where raw milk is illegal to purchase for human consumption, you do what you can to get as close to the real thing as possible. Low Vat pasteurization is as good I as we can get in our state, so it is what we have to live with. I do not have the money to make a special trip out of state 3-4 times a month to get real raw milk and raw cheeses. Articles like these are very annoying, especially, when we can’t get the real thing.
Used to get all our cheese from our milk source. Unfortunately we moved. Now, happily, we’re moving back. 🙂 YAY! I’ve just been eating what I can find on cheese, and being glad I can get grassfed beef, pork, goat, lamb, milk, and free range eggs and chickens.
Organic valley is far from a good company.
I don’t know if it is “truly raw” or not, but you can get Rumiano raw cheese on the Green Polkadot Box for a great price…
It doesn’t say the cheese is raw on the Organic Valley cheeses. It says they are “raw milk” cheeses, i.e. made from raw milk. Some types of cheese require heat to curd, so it would be impossible for the finished product to be raw. Even my small farm states that some of the cheeses aren’t raw for this reason. Organic Valley makes good quality products (their Pasture Butter is my favorite butter). Let’s not vilify good companies without reason. I am not familiar with the othe company you mention.