GL 100 Food Safety in Farmstead Cheesemaking

This guideline was developed to help farmstead cheese makers develop their own food safety plans with the goal of reducing the chance that their products will be associated with a foodborne disease outbreak. “Farmstead” is generally used to denote a cheese made by a farm using exclusively the milk from its own herd.

While the focus of this guideline is smaller scale, farmstead and artisanal cheesemakers, much of the information presented here could be useful to the larger scale processor as well.

The guideline provides you with basic information about:

Potential food safety hazards associated with the production, storage and distribution of cheese
How to assess your own cheese making process for the presence of possible food safety hazards
Procedures that can lay the groundwork for the production of safe cheese, including Current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and Standard Sanitary Operating Practices (SSOPs)
Developing your own food safety plan
Specific food safety hazard prevention and control measures that can be employed when making farmstead cheeses