Neal’s Yard seeks funding to translate French raw milk guide
Neal’s Yard Dairy is spearheading a crowdfunding campaign to finance a ground-breaking guide to raw milk microbiology, which will help artisan cheese-makers produce safer and better cheeses.
The initiative aims to raise £12,000 via Kickstarter to pay for a professional translation of the Raw Milk Microflora guide, which was written by a team of French scientists and has already been published in French.
The project is a collaboration between the French dairy organisation the Centre National des Appelations d’Origine Laitieres and the UK’s Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association (SCA). It is being co-ordinated by Bronwen Percival, head buyer at Neal’s Yard Dairy.
Percival said the book would provide English-speaking cheesemakers with practical advice on harnessing natural microbes to make cheeses that are not only safe, but exceptional and unique.
“The authors show how protecting the natural diversity of carefully produced raw milk is not only crucial for maintaining the identity and flavour of cheese, but also promotes a barrier effect that can help to protect against the growth of pathogens,” she said. “Rather than subverting modern food safety targets, this approach may actually help cheese producers to achieve them.”
The Kickstarter project runs until Sunday, Aug 31, 2014, with backers asked to pledge different amounts, starting at £40 in return for a copy of the 130-page book up to £5,000 for 15 copies and a three-day British cheese tour.
The SCA and Neal’s Yard ran a conference on the Science of Artisan Cheese in 2012, which proved to be the catalyst for the book. A second conference will take place on the August 19-20 this year in Somerset.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1032957974/raw-milk-microbiology-for-cheesemakers
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