"I grew up in Switzerland, so cheese is in my blood," laughs Fritz Kaiser.

One of six boys and one girl in a dairy farming family, Fritz has always had a love affair with food and even considered a career as a chef. Instead, he entered a four year apprenticeship in Switzerland learning about dairy production and cheesemaking. One whole year was devoted to cheesemaking and included time spent in the laboratory understanding the biochemistry of the process.

By the time it was over, his family had emigrated to Canada and Fritz came over to join them. They had bought a large dairy farm in Noyan, situated in the rich farmland of the Richelieu Valley of Quebec and he joined them here. But Fritz noticed a "large hole in the specialty cheese market in Canada" and saw an opportunity to make his own mark. In 1981, the pioneering cheesemaker began making raclette and tilsit... (read more) 

Made from Scratch

ACS recently received a preview copy of Janet Hurst's Homemade Cheese: Recipes for 50 Cheeses from Artisan Cheesemakers. The book contains recipes for cheese and cultured dairy products that you can make from scratch at home. We've selected two recipes -- provided by ACS members -- to share with you. Bon app�tit!  

Spring is in the air for much of the country and there's a lot 'blooming' at ACS, as well! Many of you have been following the ongoing media attention focused on possible regulatory changes on the horizon. 

In late February, John Sheehan, Director of the FDA's Division of Plant & Dairy Food Safety, reached out to ACS and invited us to sit down with FDA representatives to discuss concerns of ACS members, and the FDA's pending risk assessment on raw milk cheese. The meeting, held on Tuesday, March 8^th, was cordial, productive and presented an opportunity for ongoing dialogue. For a complete recap, please read our Important Member Update. 

ACS is pleased and proud to be serving in this leadership role on behalf of our membership, and will provide timely updates and an opportunity for member comment in the coming weeks and months. 

While this meeting represented our most important priority in the last few weeks, our staff and committees are also moving ahead on a number of exciting projects.

Major kudos go out to the presenters and organizers of a very successful Winter Workshops for Cheesemakers series. The in-depth sessions on "Risk Reduction in Cheesemaking Facilities" with Dr. DJ D'Amico, "Preparing a HACCP Plan" with Ranee May and Marianne Smukowski, and "Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Product Liability" with Ken Odza, were well-received by 134 participants. Recorded versions of each session are available to members on the ACS website, to be viewed at your convenience. 

Our newly designed and revamped website is nearing completion and will launch in early April. I'm sure you will be as excited at the functionality and updated design as I am, and will be patient as more information is continually added.  

As the leader in promoting and supporting American Cheese, ACS is actively engaged in seeking the most up to date information about our industry. ACS intern Adam Dworetsky has identified 920 farmstead, artisan and specialty cheesemakers in the U.S. and Canada. Cheesemakers, please be on the lookout for a survey coming your way in the next week. Completing it will help ACS generate the most complete industry statistics ever compiled.

Plans for Montr�al continue to evolve. We had a record number of scholarship applicants this year: 45 applications will be reviewed by our Scholarship Committees, and applicants will hear their results by Friday, April 8. Judging & Competition entries will open to our members on Monday, April 4 (be sure to enter early for the lowest entry fee). Conference registration begins on May 4.

I hope to see all of you at "Cheese and Fromage:Common Cultures" from August 3-6 in Montr�al.

This is your association,  

Christine Hyatt

ACS President

ACS met with FDA staff at CFSAN in College Park, MD. Left to right: Dr. Cathy Donnelly, VT Institute of Artisan Cheese; John Sheehan, FDA, CFSAN, Division of Plant & Dairy Food Safety; Nora Weiser, ACS Executive Director; Mateo Kehler, Jasper Hill Farm; David Gremmels, Rogue Creamery; Christine Hyatt, ACS President.

In our 2010 Member Survey, you told ACS that the most important things ACS could offer to its members are:

• Outreach to help educate local inspectors
• Support for cheesemakers' rights to produce raw milk cheese
• Public awareness about artisan, farmstead, and specialty cheeses

ACS listened, and we are actively working towards these goals. ACS sat down earlier this week with a team from the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition to be briefed on the purpose and nature of the FDA's ongoing compliance endeavors, and the process and schedule for the new Risk Profile for raw milk cheese. The Risk Profile is currently under peer review and will be published in draft form for public comment by the end of this calendar year. The FDA is currently not contemplating changing any rule relative to cheese aging, and at the moment is focused on creating a complete, scientifically-based assessment. For more information, please read our Important Member Update. 

ACS is also working on behalf of our members to increase public awareness through media outreach -- providing experts available for comment, producing position statements (see our Statement on the Importance of Artisan, Farmstead, and Specialty Cheese, and through the launch of the first annual American Cheese Week, which will be held from October 1-9, 2011.

We're also listening to your other requests, to be sure that your membership gives you undisputed value. We are collecting data and conducting research to have factual information on key issues, and we are developing programs and services to grow and professionalize the industry (like our Body of Knowledge, new marketing vehicles for members, special events and outreach, our free online workshop series, and our Certification Exam for Cheese Professionals).

Thank you for sharing your feedback and goals so that we can better serve ACS members now and into the future.   

Sincerely,

Nora Weiser

Executive Director   

See How Easy Entering Can Be...

ACS is excited to give our members international exposure in Montr�al! To do so, our Judging & Competition Committee has worked hard to make sure that your cheeses and dairy products will arrive safely in Montr�al with minimal impact to you, or to our usual entry process. Please note that competition entry will open on Monday, April 4.

Working closely with the Qu�bec Department of Agriculture to ensure that shipping will be as seamless as possible, ACS will be consolidating all U.S. cheeses in New York state, and will be transporting them to Montr�al in our own trucks. For that reason, and in order to ensure that no time is lost in this border crossing, cheesemakers will need to ship their entries for arrival on ONE DAY this year, rather than over two days as in years past. We will ask everyone to ship with the same carrier, UPS, as they will be handling the receipt of cheeses and cross-country consolidation of all entries at one of their dedicated facilities.  

Aside from a few changes, the entry process will be similar to previous years.

Here's how the entry process will work:  

• COMPLETE THE SAME FORM AS LAST YEAR, WITH ONE ADDITION. ACS members will fill out the same entry form as in years past. If you have multiple make locations, you will be required to fill out a separate entry form for each location. Forms must be filled out completely and must include a copy of your dairy plant permit or most recent health inspection report. (Based on regulatory information and best practices, ACS may require additional information at time of entry. More information on this will be provided in your entry packets.)

• NO ADDITIONAL CUSTOMS FORMS OR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING CHARGES WILL BE REQUIRED. The Judging & Competition Committee is working with Border Officials to consolidate all entries as one shipment, so cheesemakers won't have to worry about customs forms or international shipping charges.

• STANDARD $55 ENTRY FEE FOR ON-TIME ENTRIES. Cheesemakers will be able to enter online via the ACS web site, email, fax, or mail. ACS will accept payment via check, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. The late entry fee will be $80 per entry, for entries received between May 21 and May 27. No entries are accepted after May 27.  

• FILL OUT & INCLUDE YOUR PACKING SLIP WITH YOUR SHIPMENT. Your packing slip plays an expanded role this year in providing accessible information about your shipment for Canadian officials. In addition, ACS will include space for you to include the "Date of Production" for each cheese/dairy product entry. This information will be required. Without it, your product will not be allowed into the 2011 Festival of Cheese.

• ALL ENTRIES MUST BE SHIPPED VIA UPS NEXT DAY AIR. Cheesemakers will be required to ship their product through UPS Next Day Air to our designated competition shipping address. This will allow ACS to effectively track all entries, and will allow for a more seamless consolidation in Plattsburgh, NY. (If you don't already have an account set up with UPS, we suggest that you begin the process now at ups.com.)

• SHIP PRODUCT OVERNIGHT ON JULY 27 FOR CONSOLIDATION IN PLATTSBURGH. Cheesemakers will be asked to ship their product overnight on Wednesday, July 27 for delivery on Thursday, July 28. Although you'll be shipping overnight, it is recommended that you package your cheese as you would for 48 hours of transit. Entrants will be provided with details about how to package cheese to ensure proper temperatures are maintained during transport.

• ENTRIES ARRIVE IN MONTREAL ON JULY 28 VIA CONSOLIDATED SHIPPING. All competition entries that arrive in Plattsburgh, NY will be transported that same day to Montr�al, and will then undergo our normal receiving process. The Judging & Competition Committee will be on-site in Montr�al from the moment the competition trucks arrive, to ensure timely processing of your entries.

The ACS team is excited about this opportunity to showcase your products on an international level. We hope that you are, too! As you can see, the process for our cheesemakers in Montr�al is similar to the process in any other year: you make great cheeses or cultured dairy products, ship your products, and await the results of our world-renowned, and truly North American, Judging & Competition. We look forward to seeing you and your products in Montr�al!    

Respectfully,  

David Grotenstein

Judging & Competition Chair

Michelle Lee

ACS Programs & Operations Director  

The 2011 Judging & Competition is

sponsored by Atlanta Foods International  

• 2011 Conference & Competition: This year marks ACS's first conference in Canada, and it affords exciting new opportunities for sponsors. Sponsors will reach the audiences they always count on, but they will also have the chance to explore new opportunities with a receptive and excited cheese community in Canada. Download our 2011 Sponsorship Brochure. 

• Certification Exam for Cheese Professionals: ACS is developing a Certification Exam for Cheese Professionals, which will offer an opportunity for food industry professionals who procure, care for, sell, or serve cheese to earn the distinguished designation of Certified Cheese Professional -- the highest credential available to cheese professionals in North America. ACS is seeking partners to support the creation and launch of this exam. Learn more in our Certification Exam Sponsorship Brochure. 

• American Cheese Week: Launching in October of 2011, sponsors can get noticed by supporting this week of events and educational outreach in every region of the country. Help ACS increase visibility for the North American cheese community!