Cheese

All biosecurity requirements must be met before Imported Food Inspection Scheme requirements apply.

Check our Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON) for biosecurity import conditions.

We classify imported food that presents a potential medium or high risk to public health as risk food. All risk food is listed in the Imported Food Control Order 2019.

Cheese that supports the growth of Listeria monocytogenes is classified as risk food

This is:

• cheese that does not meet the criteria for cheese that does not support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes.

Soft and semi-soft style cheeses are generally considered to support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes.

Exclusions

• Raw milk cheese.
• Food from New Zealand.

Criteria for cheese that does not support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes

Cheese that does not support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes is food that has one or more of these parameters:

• the cheese has a pH less than 4.4 regardless of water activity
• the cheese has a water activity less than 0.92 regardless of pH
• the cheese has a pH less than 5.0 in combination with a water activity of less than 0.94
• the cheese has a refrigerated shelf life no greater than 5 days (includes frozen cheese that has a refrigerated shelf life of no greater than 5 days once thawed)
• the level of Listeria monocytogenes will not increase by greater than 0.5 log cfu/g over the stated shelf life of the cheese.

Community Protection (CP) questions

You may need to answer these CP questions when lodging your full import declaration:

IFIS: Is the cheese made from unpasteurised milk? If yes complete the 'imported food inspection scheme-importer declaration for cheese made with unpasteurised milk'.

IFIS: Is the cheese covered by an ‘Imported Food Inspection Scheme–importer declaration for cheese that does not support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes’?

Inspection and testing

We refer consignments of cheese for analytical testing based on whether it is a cheese that supports the growth of Listeria monocytogenes or not.

• Cheese that supports the growth of Listeria monocytogenes is a risk food and referred for testing at the initial rate of 100% of consignments until compliance is demonstrated.
• Cheese that does not support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes is a surveillance food and referred for testing at the rate of 5% of consignments.

During inspection, we will also conduct a visual and label assessment.

Table 1 shows the test that will be applied and permitted results for the food type.

Table 1, Food type, test applied and permitted result

n = the number of samples to be analysed from a lot of food.
c = the maximum number of sample units that can be greater than ‘m’.
m = the acceptable microbiological level in a sample unit.

Food safety risks

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has given us advice about the risk of cheese that supports the growth of Listeria monocytogenes. This food presents a medium or high risk to public health for Listeria monocytogenes.

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