Judging & Competition Online Entry Begins Next Wednesday, April 5!
Online Entry Opens:
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Regular Entry Period Closes: Friday, May 12, 2017
Late Entry Period Closes:
Friday, May 19, 2017*
*Absolutely no entries will be accepted after May 19.
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We Won! The Cheese Party Takes Home Nonprofit PR Award
Last week, ACS was
honored with a Nonprofit PR Award from PR News for the Cheese Party campaign -- a collaboration between ACS and the American Cheese Education Foundation, and the marketing and technology agency, DigitasLBi. The political-style "Pro Cheese" campaign was created to raise the visibility of American artisan cheese among consumers and industry members, along with drawing attention to ACE Foundation's work to grow artisan cheese awareness, appreciation, and education.
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Great Ready for
Cheese with Altitude!
Conference Registration Opens May 3rd & Our Volunteer Website is Now Live!
Registration for the 34th Annual ACS Conference in Denver, CO this summer will open May 3! Please consider joining us for several days of education and networking: July 26-29, 2017.
Registration rates:
- Early: $499
- Regular: $599
- Late/On-Site: $699
If you plan to volunteer in Denver, our volunteer website is now live! Share some of your time and talents with us, and you'll get an official volunteer t-shirt, plus an extra ticket to the Festival of Cheese for yourself or a friend.
Sign up to volunteer today!
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Apply for a 2017 Conference Scholarship by this Friday, March 31
The application deadline for 2017 ACS Conference scholarships is nearing! If you're a cheesemaker, retailer, student, or local chef, be sure to check out the eligibility criteria and apply for a scholarship to attend "Cheese with Altitude" in Denver this summer. If you're eligible, we encourage you to
apply now! All applications must be received or postmarked by March 31.
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Prepare for the ACS CCP® Exam!
If you're wondering about the ACS CCP® Exam and the process involved in prepping for and taking it, consider reaching out to an
ACS CCP®! There are now more than
700
ACS CCP®
s in the US, Canada, and abroad, and this group can provide unique insights into their experiences.
If, after talking with current ACS CCPs® and reading the exam handbook, you decide the time is right to become an ACS CCP®, there are many resources on our website to assist you.
Check them out
-- and best of luck!
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Cheese Industry Scholarships Announced
Cheese Study Group Funds ACS CCP® Exam Scholarship
The Facebook Cheese Study Group has crowdfunded to support its first ACS CCP® Exam Scholarship! The scholarship will allow an ACS CCP® Exam candidate to sit for the exam in Denver this summer. Along with exam costs, this scholarship will cover a 2017 ACS membership, a 2017 ACS Conference registration, and travel and lodging in Denver.
Learn more and apply by April 15.
2017 Sartori Scholar Competition is Open
Sartori Cheese and culture magazine are sending two cheesemongers to take the ACS CCP® Exam at this summer's ACS Conference in Denver! The winners will have all expenses paid, including travel to and from Denver, a 2017 ACS Conference registration, lodging for the duration of the Conference, and the ACS CCP Exam fee. This scholarship is open to individuals living in the continental U.S. who have been formally accepted to take the ACS CCP Exam.
Learn more and apply by April 24.
Apply for the $5,000 Daphne Zepos Teaching Award!
The application season is now open for the Daphne Zepos Teaching Award! If you -- or your business -- is an ACS member, and you've worked in food for three years, you're eligible to win this amazing $5,000 award. See past winners and download your application packet at
dzta.org.
All applications are due by May 31!
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 This month's message is simple: as producers and purveyors of American artisan and specialty cheese, we owe our customers and our companies a solid commitment to designing and scrupulously following an effective food safety plan.
My first exposure to HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) occurred in 1980, when I "graduated" from salting cheese to working in the Quality Assurance Lab. Back then the Caves of Faribault were a subsidiary of Pauly Cheese / Swift & Co. As employees of a Fortune 50 food company, our Quality Managers were afforded the latest training and quality tools in order to consistently meet the ever rising expectations of our customers.
Today, HACCP has evolved in the U.S.
into HARPC (Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls) -- or what the FDA now prefers to call
Preventive Controls for Human Foods (PCHF) as mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulation signed in January 2011. Basically, a food safety plan is required for "any food facility in the United States or abroad..." Larger companies are required to fully implement a PCHF while smaller companies may implement a simpler plan.
Based on my experience as a cheesemaker and business owner, I highly recommend going through the exercise of developing a PCHF regardless of your business size. A major benefit of developing your PCHF plan is that it will guide your business decisions on how best to spend your time and money while ensuring our most critical business responsibility -- producing safe products -- is met.
I know it can seem overwhelming to contemplate all the aspects of implementing a PCHF. Here's the good news. Today, you don't have to belong to a Fortune 50 company to access the best and latest tools for developing your plan. Your ACS membership gives you access to tools! And, better yet, they are tailored specifically to our industry. Named "
The Safe Cheesemaking Hub," this resource has been years in the making, giving you single point access to the latest information you need to develop or enhance your food safety plan.
Click here for an inspiring introduction.
The ACS
Mission Statement encourages "the highest standards of cheesemaking focused on safety and sustainability." Developing a food safety plan based on the principles of PCHF will serve both aims well. Our employees and customers deserve our best in this critical effort.
All my best,
Jeff Jirik
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The Future is Always On the Horizon(s)
For ACS, thinking strategically means looking ahead to address tomorrow's problems today. Our resources need to be allocated wisely to focus on the issues that are most likely to impact members down the road. Without a crystal ball, our real challenge is staying on top of industry issues to determine what direction they might head -- and what that direction might mean for our members. For example, with FSMA and regulatory changes over the past several years, ACS focused on
developing and sharing food safety education and resources. We focus 3-5 years out, and a great way to look at this is through the
Three Horizons of Growth, a framework that can help any business grow and stay relevant.
So what issues are we currently watching that could impact members? Insurance is one example -- will providers respond to the recent listeriosis outbreak linked to raw milk cheese by upping premiums and/or refusing to cover such products and producers? Plant-based foods now have
their own lobbying group in DC -- will they be allowed to use the term "milk" for plant-based beverages, and call products made from them "cheese"? FDA has the technology, and the archive of DNA, to link past foodborne illness outbreaks to current findings in products and facilities -- will producers
be found liable for illnesses that happened decades ago? FDA has told us that the Vulto Creamery incident will not lead them to refocus their efforts on raw milk cheese -- but given their own
risk assessment, might they direct their focus to soft-ripened and other high-moisture cheeses?
Genetically engineered milk is no longer science fiction -- what happens to dairy producers and products when this technology becomes mainstream?
The ACS Universe consists of many busy producers, retailers, and others in the broader cheese community. To stay ahead of what is happening in our industry, we rely on all of us to work together. There will always be incidents that require prompt, thoughtful reaction; but the more we share openly together, the more proactive we can become. Our approach is to continue to work collaboratively with members, allied industry groups, and regulators.
We cannot stop change, but we are actively working to guide foreseeable change and impact its direction.
Nora Weiser
Executive Director
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As a Member, You're Part of the ACS Universe!
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FDA Updates ACS in Light of Recent Listeriosis Outbreak Linked to Raw Milk Cheese
On March 21, ACS Executive Director, Nora Weiser, spoke with FDA representatives to seek insight on FDA's direction following the
listeriosis outbreak linked to Vulto Creamery. FDA informed ACS that this outbreak appears to be a "facility-specific situation." Based on the fact that the problems were related to facility conditions, and isolated to the facility, FDA wanted to reassure ACS members that it does not currently have plans to refocus attention on raw milk cheese. FDA is hoping to post a redacted Form 483 (inspection report) to provide more detail regarding its findings. They will inform ACS if and when this report is made public on the FDA website.
Based on the information that has emerged so far, FDA emphasized the need to scrupulously follow all food safety plans and guidelines and recommended that ACS members focus their attention on Listeria monocytogenes control.
For practical resources, please see:
While this sheds some initial light on the situation, ACS will continue to seek additional information, and we will share more details with members as they become available.
To assist us in monitoring the situation, please keep us posted if you are inspected, engage with regulators, or have other pertinent information to share by emailing Nora Weiser at
nweiser@cheesesociety.org.
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Help Build Industry Food Safety Resources
ACS members thrive through sharing information and collaborating on important issues, and no issue is more important today than food safety. ACS is seeking industry-focused food safety plans, forms, and templates from cheesemakers, affineurs, retailers, and distributors that can be used as examples for others: receiving logs, temperature logs, sanitation logs, batch tracking sheets, in-house aging and sanitation SOPS and HACCP, and any other Prerequisite programs.
ACS will collect, compile, and share these documents on
The Safe Cheesemaking Hub. Unless otherwise directed, we will anonymize all materials submitted to remove identifying information. We hope you'll participate to enhance food safety through the sharing of resources. Please send your contributions, along with any special instructions, to
sspira@cheesesociety.org. Thank you!
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Tomorrow! Wednesday, March 29, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM MDT
A Free Webinar for ACS Members
In the ever-changing cheese marketplace, how DO you sell your cheese? As cheesemakers, you want your cheese to arrive safely and reach the right monger or chef, who will make that final customer connection. Navigating this complex world is tricky, especially for smaller producers without a sales team and with limited product. Join cheesemaker Jodi Ohlsen Read of Shepherd's Way Farms for a conversation with fellow cheesemakers Keith Adams of Wm. Cofield Cheese and Alemar Cheese, and Sarah Hoffmann of Green Dirt Farm, as they have a lively discussion on sales and distribution. Hear their insights into working with distributors, packing and shipping, connecting with end customers, and common pitfalls. Register for this webinar!
ACS webinars are made possible by the nonprofit American Cheese Education Foundation. Support the ACE Foundation's work with a tax-deductible donation.
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Certification News
2017 Exam Applications are Due this Friday!
The
next ACS CCP® Exam will be held on July 26, 2017 in Denver.
Applications will be accepted through this Friday, March 31!
Re-certification for 2014 CCPs
Applications for re-certification for CCPs from the 2014 class will open in conjunction with the 2017 ACS Conference in Denver this summer. In order to retain your certification, be sure to re-certify by October 31, 2017!
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Six Part Safe Cheesemaking Track is Free for a Limited Time
For a limited time, video recordings of the six part Safe Cheesemaking Track from the 2016 ACS Conference in Des Moines are available for viewing free of charge.
This educational track includes the following sessions:
Developing a Sanitary Facility, Food Safety = Behavior, Hazards in Cheesemaking, Pathogen Behavior in Cheese, Prerequisite Programs and Preventive Controls, and
Product Sampling, Testing, and Environmental Monitoring.
To view the sessions, click the image below and start watching!
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By Nora Weiser, Executive Director
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Photo: American Cheese Society
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Spring is a great time of year to gather friends together for lazy brunches that linger well into the ever-warmer afternoons. If I'm hosting, I'd rather be sipping mimosas and socializing than stuck in the kitchen cooking. An easy way to ensure that I get to enjoy the festivities is to prepare crowd-pleasing dishes in advance. And one of the most crowd-pleasing I have ever made is a breakfast casserole filled with eggs, cheese, sausage, and roasted hatch chiles.
Once my local Farmer's Market opens, my whole neighborhood takes on the hot, smoky smell of fresh hatch chiles being charred over an open flame. The family that sells the chiles packs them up hot out of the basket in ziplock baggies clouded with humidity. On hot days, I'm not sure how they are able to brave the intense heat of the blazing flames; but they do, steadily cranking the handle over and over again until the chiles give up and release their sweet, smoky, rich goodness. Fresh-roasted hatch chiles might not be easy to come by in your area, but this casserole is so forgiving that even canned, roasted green chiles work just fine.
Put the dish together the night before and keep it covered in the fridge overnight. The bread soaks up the egg mixture, and when baked leads to a custardy, cheesy, flavorful dish that demands seconds. Another plus: serving timing is flexible as the dish is just as delicious hot, warm, room temperature, or cold. If you'll be in Denver for the ACS Conference this summer, head to my 'hood to check out the South Pearl Street Farmer's Market and grab some freshly roasted hatch chiles for yourself!
Make this great recipe, and many more, from
The Cultured Kitchen!
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