Boston-area cheese aficionados may have to bid adieu to Mimolette, an aged French cheese with a bright orange rind, as the Food and Drug Administration has put the tastes-like-Gouda treat on the firing line recently for unacceptable levels of "cheese mites."
"There are cheese mites in many, many cheeses," pointed out Peter Lovis, the proprietor of the Concord Cheese Shop in Concord. "Most people are not aware, but there have been cheese mites in cheese for a long, long time."
It's not the mites, but rather the number of mites in Mimolette that is raising the red flag. The FDA allows six mites per square inch of cheese, FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman told the Herald, and more than 75 percent of Mimolette cheese sampled at import stations was found to exceed the FDA's standard. As a result, shipments of the cheese have been detained or destroyed.
"It hasn't been easy to get recently, it's not in stock right now," said Lovis, who estimated he last had Mimolette on shelves in May or June.
Formaggio Kitchen in South End is also fresh out.
"We're on the lucky side, as someone who imports small amounts often, we (only) had two cases destroyed (by the FDA)," said David Robinson, their cheese buyer. "There are importers who had hundreds of pounds destroyed. Distributors in Europe are not keen on sending it over (because of the risk the FDA will detain or destroy it) — it's a loss for everybody."
Eisenman stressed that the cheese hasn't been banned, but in some ways that is more frustrating for the cheesemongers.
"We don't really know what is acceptable or unacceptable," said Lovis.
"Six mites per square inch is weird and arbitrary," agrees Robinson.
And the health risk is murky: Neither Lovis nor Robinson can recall a customer complaining of feeling ill after eating Mimolette.
"I couldn't find a lot about what the FDA's reasoning for this is: what exactly prompted it or what the problem is from a food-safety perspective," said Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and clinical associate professor at Boston University's Sargent College of Health.
Even the FDA admitted the reactions are unknown: "While the presence of (mites) does not necessarily mean there will be a negative health consequence if a product is ingested ... ingestion of mites can result in intestinal parasitic infection as well as allergic reaction," said Eisenman.
"It's unfortunate because it's a classic," said Robinson. "People will continue to ask for it even if it does get banned."
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