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Comment by iends | Hacker News Reader

I assume I can’t buy this from the USA because customs rules...?

I think it might be fine, but they are sold out.

> all cheese regulated by the FDA (that is, all cheese that is transported across state lines) must either be made from pasteurized (heated) milk or aged at least 60 days.

I wonder if it'd have been aged enough just from having to be shipped all the way from France?

Yeah we can't get anything good here. I went down that rabbit hole one Christmas and it's a lost cause.

Unless you're willing to fly to Europe or Singapore (Cheese Ark) you're not getting the good stuff.

At least it's not the maggot cheese from the islands of Italy.

I don't know, but it's very similar to reblochon, which is probably available.

Reblochon is not available in the USA because the milk is neither pasteurised nor aged enough.

Well you can't buy from the USA because it's sold out. But also because it's neither pasteurized nor aged cheese, so you'd be correct.

Well they sold out already, so there's also that. Good on the monks though, and it's the thought that counts!

I’m also curious. Lots of other countries they ship to. With the US has some weird import laws, or they just figure Americans aren’t interested in these products.

Raw milk products (including cheese) are heavily regulated by the US FDA: https://www.cheesesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/PPT...

I imagine these products can be imported but only with significant paperwork. And if you fail a pathogen test, you've probably lost the shipment and been put on a list for "followup": https://www.fda.gov/media/99340/download

As I understand it, the issue is that many European cheeses are made of unpasteurized milk which is illegal in the US. And many small cheese makers are not willing to break practices going hundreds of years back just to get into another market.

Don’t know if this applies to the cheese in this article.

It's not really about fetishising ancient production methods. Cheese made with unpasteurised milk tastes different and, in many people's opinion, better.

Pretty often they are not that old nor are they using all traditional techniques. It is more about product.

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