IPFS News Link • Food
Demonstrators in New York rage over US ban on French cheese mites
• The RawStory.comSince March, several hundred pounds of the bright orange cheese have been held up by US customs because of a warning by the Food and Drug Administration that it contained microscopic cheese mites.
The mites are a critical part of the process to produce mimolette, giving it its distinctive grayish crust.
The US decision has angered importers and consumers, who have even set up a Facebook page titled “Save the Mimolette.”
Protesters in Greenwich Village — many dressed in orange– handed out bite-sized samples of the cheese to passersby in order to raise awareness of the ban.
“We had eight balls of three kilos (6.6 pounds), so we decided to educate people a little,” said Benoit de Vitton, an importer of the cheese.