Dairy UK Urges Regulators to Recognise Nutritional Value of Cheese

Dairy UK has called on regulators to take a more balanced approach to cheese and be more positive about its nutritional qualities. Speaking at the All Party Parliamentary Cheese Group Reception in London on Wednesday evening, Dairy UK Communications Director Simon Bates said continued criticism of the use of salt in the cheese making process is often misleading and ill-informed.

8 Mar 2013 --- “Cheese making is something that the UK dairy industry is immensely proud of and it is in everyone’s interests that its nutritional values are recognised.

“Cheese is made with just a few basic ingredients – milk, a starter culture, salt and rennet,” said Mr Bates. “Yet UK cheese makers have managed to take these few ingredients and turn them into over 700 named varieties. Each has its own unique taste, texture and nutritional composition.

“A 30g portion of cheddar contains 125 calories, 10g of fat and 6.5g of saturated fat. But it also contains protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus and B vitamins.

“The Department of Health advises that adults don’t consume over 6g of salt a day. That 30g portion of cheddar cheese contains 0.5g of salt, or less than 10% of the recommended maximum intake, and cheese is only responsible for 4% of the nation’s salt intake.”

Mr Bates went on to explain that next week is National Salt Awareness Week.

“It is important to remember the facts about cheese and salt,” said Mr Bates. “Salt is added to cheese for safety and technical reasons. Without it, many products would be inedible and unsafe.

“As an industry, we continue to work on overcoming the technical barriers to reducing the salt content of our product, and no doubt in time we will succeed.

“But we must always put customer safety and acceptability at the heart of these efforts. We cannot compromise on safety.”

With Defra’s full support, Dairy UK is launching a Cheese Exporters Group.

The new initiative was unveiled at the All Party Parliamentary Cheese Group reception in London on Wednesday.

David Heath, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food said: “I’m very pleased to give my personal support to this new Dairy UK initiative that should be very complementary to work to boost the dairy industry through improving its exports capability”.

“We’re very excited about this new Group,” said Dairy UK Director General Jim Begg, “and particularly pleased that Minister of State for Agriculture and Food David Heath has given it his support.

“The overall objective of the initiative is to encourage British cheese makers to focus more on export markets for cheese.

“One of the key the activities of the new Group will be examination of opportunities for collaborative activity. This might involve product development, sharing market intelligence, joint marketing activities and sharing routes to market.

“Other Group activities will include liaison with Defra and UKTI, sharing market information and best practice on export markets, and identification of priority countries for resolution of outstanding export health certification issues.

“David Heath will, on behalf of both Defra and Dairy UK, soon be writing to cheese makers to invite them to attend the first meeting of the Group” explained Mr Begg.

“This meeting will take place shortly after the UK Dairy Export Forum at the International Food Exhibition on 19th March”.