[HN Gopher] Fraudsters steal 22 tonnes of high-value cheddar
___________________________________________________________________
Fraudsters steal 22 tonnes of high-value cheddar
Author : goodcanadian
Score : 75 points
Date : 2024-10-25 17:54 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| JanSolo wrote:
| Some high-impact reporting there from the BBC! Also contains my
| favourite quote of the day: "Westcombe Dairy's maturing cave is
| equipped with cheddar-turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner"
| ForOldHack wrote:
| This machine needs its own post:
|
| "cheddar-turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner."
|
| www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hnQnTRIfws
| tonetegeatinst wrote:
| The silent implication of a cheese black market is horrifying yet
| somewhat amusing.
|
| Imagine trying to buy stolen wheels of Parmigianino or German
| cheese.
| lastofthemojito wrote:
| I like to imagine police had been following these guys for
| weeks after noting suspicious behavior, but were unable to
| crack the criminals' presumed code, "they keep talking about a
| big cheese heist and taking lots of cheddar - but what's the
| target, is it a bank or a museum or a jeweler?"
|
| Nope, they were just talking about stealing cheese.
| ortusdux wrote:
| Counterfeiting is a major concern. Parmigianino Reggiano
| producers have been testing laser activated RFID chips for
| traceability.
|
| https://futurism.com/the-byte/cheese-tracking-chips-parmesan
|
| https://p-chip.com/about/
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > Counterfeiting is a major concern.
|
| To who? Suppose I buy some "Parmesan cheese" and it tastes
| exactly like Parmesan cheese. What's the problem supposed to
| be?
|
| In what sense is the cheese counterfeit at all?
| wormlord wrote:
| Parmesano Reggiano has to come from the Parma region of
| Italy and is certified by some consortium of cheese makers
| I think. Same thing with San Marzano tomatoes.
|
| There's not a problem per-se, but the issue is that in all
| reality you'd probably be getting an inferior product. The
| exclusivity is done so that consumers can be ensured that
| they are getting cheese from a specific area with specific
| criteria.
| rcruzeiro wrote:
| If you paid for Parmesan cheese and got something else, I'd
| say that's already a problem. We are not even taking into
| consideration that counterfeit food products adhere to no
| food safety standards.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > If you paid for Parmesan cheese and got something else,
| I'd say that's already a problem.
|
| Kind of an ironic claim in a discussion of Cheddar
| cheese.
| bee_rider wrote:
| I guess real Parmesan cheese complies with the food
| safety regulations of Parma, while most knock off (for
| example) American brands will comply with the local food
| safety regulations.
|
| I mean... I dunno, it isn't as if I actually believe my
| country has sane regulations. But I've presumably already
| eaten lots of American sawdust in my powdered cheese
| products, how bad could it be for me? What kind of
| sawdust do they have in Parma?
| stouset wrote:
| You might find this hard to believe, but they don't
| actually put sawdust in _any_ product labeled "parmigiano
| reggiano" in Parma.
|
| And it's not just about that. "Parmesan" in the US
| doesn't have to abide by... basically anything. It
| doesn't need to be aged. It doesn't need to be milk of
| any particular quality. It can include any ingredients.
| It has no definitional requirements at all, other than
| needing to plausibly be cheese.
| bl4ckm0r3 wrote:
| Procedures and ingredients quality are not respected in
| counterfeit products (for example it's acceptable, in the
| us, for grated parmesan to have cellulose/wood pulp in it)
| and they still sell you the stuff at a high price. i don't
| think anyone died because of these products but if you take
| fake parmigiano it's a $2B market.
|
| https://www.foodandwine.com/news/amount-wood-pulp-grated-
| par...
|
| https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/parmesan-
| che...
|
| https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2012/11/19/the-
| dar...
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| Prepackaged grated parmesan needs an anti-caking additive
| no matter where in the world you live. Cellulose isn't
| bad for you, in moderation. So the issue is not whether
| your prepackaged parmesan has cellulose added, it's how
| much was added.
|
| If you don't like it then you should buy solid parmesan
| and grate it yourself. In the US or anywhere else.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| It's also not something unique to Parmesan, all shredded
| cheese has additives to prevent it turning into a cheese
| ball again. Kind of the nature of shredded cheese
| k4rli wrote:
| Why would European sellers hide the additives then?
| Especially with stricter labelling+food standards.
|
| https://iperdrive.iper.it/spesa-
| online/it/seriate/parmigiano...
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| Congrats on finding one without cellulose. That is also
| possible in the US.
|
| Powdered cellulose is an Annex II food additive in the EU
| - E 460(ii) - and is an allowed food additive to any
| grated or sliced whey cheese, quantum satis (the
| manufacturer can use as much of it as they need to use,
| because it is considered harmless) [1]
|
| This is EXACTLY the same situation as the US.
|
| [1] https://ec.europa.eu/food/food-feed-
| portal/screen/food-addit...
|
| My statement a few comments above was a brain fart :) The
| larger the grated pieces, the less anti-caking agents you
| would need. It completely slipped my mind and I suspect
| that the cheese linked above would be larger pieces of
| parmesan. Still, if exposed to the high humidity present
| in some parts of the US (less common in Italy), the
| cheese in that package would eventually become a clumpy
| mess if not fully consumed quickly :)
|
| You have to understand that lots of people seem to enjoy
| parmesan as essentially a powder. I have no idea why,
| that is certainly not my preference. However, there is
| demand for parmesan "powder" and the market therefore
| supplies it. Powdered cellulose is the only way to make
| that happen.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| no, it's not the only way, here's grated parmesan with
| absolutely no cellulose:
| https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-
| fresh...
| umanwizard wrote:
| What makes you think it will actually taste exactly the
| same?
| ygjb wrote:
| For the example Parmesan cheese vs PDO (Protected
| Designation of Origin, under European law) Parmesan
| Reggiano cheese, the differences are in flavour and
| texture. It is absolutely possible to make Parmesan that
| matches PDO Parmesan Reggiano cheese outside of that
| region, but if you don't have the stamp (or counterfeit the
| stamp), you can't charge a premium price.
|
| The same applies to a laundry list of food ingredients and
| products, including wines, cheeses, teas, produce, and
| meat. PDO isn't the only such scheme, several countries
| have their own appelation programs.
|
| From a counterfeiting perspective there are three major
| concerns - misleading the consumer, economic harm to the
| cheesemakers in the region of origin, and potential food
| safety.
|
| In terms of misleading the consumer, mass market parmesan
| cheese is usually produced with pasteurized milk vs raw
| milk and cured for 10 months vs 24 months. It is often sold
| ground into a fine powder to conceal the lower quality
| texture, and the flavour profile is substantially
| different. When cooking with 10 month cured cheese vs 24
| month cured cheese, there is a noticeable difference in how
| the cheese melts and incorporates into different foods
| which can result in downstream lower quality foods (in
| terms of presentation and flavour, nutritionally the
| differences are negligable).
|
| In terms of economic harm, parmesan cheese is substantially
| cheaper to produce, and has a retail price as low as
| $~0.50/ounce. PDO Parmesan ranges in price from
| $~1.50/ounce for 2 year aged, and as high as $~10/ounce
| (note my prices are converted from CAD to USD, and based on
| prices from the cheese market near me, prices may vary by
| market). If a counterfeiter can sell parmesan as PDO
| Parmesan Reggiano, they command a significant margin, even
| if they sell it much cheaper than the retail price).
|
| In terms of health risks, PDO and other Appelation
| designations often require audits or reviews of production
| process to ensure compliance and quality control. Fake PDO
| Parm made with unpasteurized milk and not handled properly
| can bring the risks of using raw milk to the consumer -
| properly made PDO Parm results in a cured and extremely low
| moisture product that should destroy most of the bacteria
| and molds. Even minor changes in the production process can
| make the resulting product unsafe or higher risk for
| consumption.
| maxerickson wrote:
| It's funny to get down in the weeds of the low standards
| of the American product when it's often sold next to a
| container labeled topping and mostly comprised of
| powdered whey.
| mattlondon wrote:
| The same could be said about anything. Clothes, watches,
| cars, hell even medicine.
|
| If it is indistinguishable, is it different? It starts to
| get a bit philosophical from there on in.
|
| I think though fakes tend to be significantly worse quality
| because they want to make loads of profit. I can't see
| cheese fraudsters going to the same lengths of maturation
| and all that because why bother.
| singleshot_ wrote:
| To people who want to use the mark or origin to distinguish
| between quality goods and garbage before they buy them
| instead of after they taste them. You know, the primary use
| of a mark of origin.
|
| You may have noticed that you supposed the opposite of what
| I supposed, for sanity's sake.
| jajko wrote:
| Louis Vuitton fake bag may look 1:1 from good enough
| distance yet for some reason people keep buying them...
| what's the problem supposed to be? And that's before going
| into topic of being European and actually appreciating
| heritage, place of origin, craft skills etc. that go into
| making one of these.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Do you know about the maggot filled cheese from Sardinia, casu
| martzu? It is illegal in the EU but it is still sold illegally
| around the area of its inception. It's illegal because
| sometimes the maggots could survive in your intestines to cause
| damage.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| Eating food that can eat you back ... a real ouroboros.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Pineapple is similar in that it has enzymes that digest
| your tongue as you eat it.
| deepfriedchokes wrote:
| I bet you are fun to talk to at parties and I mean that
| in a good way.
| foo42 wrote:
| I've always disliked how my tongue feels when eating
| pineapple (so I rarely do) this explains it!
| saaaaaam wrote:
| This is the reason that traditionally a "gammon steak" is
| served grilled with pineapple. The pineapple helps
| tenderise the meat. Which in turn is why in the US
| pineapple started to be put on pizza that had ham on it.
| sampo wrote:
| In 2014 EU put sanctions on exporting certain goods to Russia,
| and Russia put counter-sanctions on e.g. importing European
| cheese to Russia. But Russian people still wantef higher
| quality cheese, so smuggling cheese across the Finnish-Russian
| border was quite common in the years following. But this is
| only 100kg:
|
| https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/oltermanni-salakuljettaj...
| trhway wrote:
| more typical since 2014 the situation of the goods like
| Norwegian salmon disappearing from the Russian market while
| the goods that were never there until 2014 like Belarussian
| salmon (while Belarussia is still landlocked :) quickly
| becoming available in large volumes on Russian market.
| Similarly with Armenian electronics which never been there
| until 2022.
| deepfriedchokes wrote:
| That's crazy where do they sell these black market cheeses
| anyway? Asking for a friend.
| drewcoo wrote:
| Restaurants. Grocers. Cheese shops. Businesses with tight
| margins that might be willing to consider something that
| "fell off a truck."
|
| You'd have to be pretty bad at reselling to resort to selling
| it out of the back of a car.
| fecal_henge wrote:
| Obligatory mental image of someone opening mackintosh to reveal
| suspended cheeses inside.
| trhway wrote:
| How one would launder all that cheese? Even say having some big
| retailer involved, some customers would probably still recognize
| that the cheese is from that batch.
| Ma8ee wrote:
| Small corner shops that buys a few legal pieces of cheese
| through officials channels, but buy the bulk on the black
| market for a fraction of the price.
| tomwphillips wrote:
| This is pretty niche cheddar. I doubt it's being sold at a
| corner shop alongside warm cans of Carlsberg!
| tomwphillips wrote:
| I imagine it will be smuggled out of the country immediately.
|
| No cheese buyer at a large retailer in the UK would touch it.
| It's not worth the risk.
|
| Similarly at the artisan end of the market, it's a small world
| (like the article says) - why would you risk your personal and
| commercial reputation buying stolen goods? You wouldn't.
| thimabi wrote:
| I wonder how they are going to smuggle such a gigantic
| quantity of cheese out of the country. It's kind of hard to
| move 22 tonnes of anything without raising suspicion, and
| doing so in a hurry poses additional challenges.
| jl6 wrote:
| I imagine they would have to do it Caerphilly.
| 3guk wrote:
| Damnit, you got me with that one !!
| gazook89 wrote:
| I'm not disagreeing with you, but 22 tonnes is about 48,000
| lbs, which is about the limit (or just over) of what a
| regular semi trailer can haul (at least in the US). So
| moving it likely isn't much issue, but the selling it
| likely is
| erehweb wrote:
| But once you've got it out of the country, where then? Would
| French cheese buyers take it? Or do you have to go to Russia?
| titusjohnson wrote:
| Unlike jewels or greenbacks, you can get value out of cheddar
| over time by eating a cheese heavy diet. I imagine the tough
| part here is storing that much cheese for long enough to
| provide a large impact to your monthly grocery budget.
| mattlondon wrote:
| Cheese keeps. No rush.
|
| Keep hold of it for a while then when it has blown over sell a
| truckle here or there to an up-market restaurant, perhaps a few
| at a time for a small distributor etc.
|
| Probably untraceable and entirely legit looking if you are just
| selling cheese. It's not like they are going to be trying to
| off load your "typical" high-value goods at silly low prices in
| pubs and car boot sales.
| makapuf wrote:
| Let's start investigating Gromit!
| bell-cot wrote:
| _Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl_ is due for release this
| month, so they'll be available.
|
| Current Working Title: _Wheel of Feta_
| vr46 wrote:
| It's only 22 tons, we could probably polish that off over a
| weekend.
| nutrie wrote:
| Very British :)
| dogsgobork wrote:
| This is up there with the Canadian maple syrup theft in the
| "Crimes most befitting their country" list.
| dweinus wrote:
| I shudder to think what the USA's would be, but strong chance
| it involves Florida Man.
| yurishimo wrote:
| Guns
| jll29 wrote:
| While we're at it, I drove a small amount of Normandy Camembert
| through the Northern part of Alsace today, but it was strictly
| for personal consumption only and legally obtained from
| Carrefour.
|
| Mystery how folks could spend GBP 11 for 250 g of Cheddar !?
| naikrovek wrote:
| Oh no, me cheese
| hulitu wrote:
| Is it possible that Scotland Yard does not have sniffing dogs ?
| IndrekR wrote:
| 300000PS/22000kg[?]13.6PS/kg
|
| Not sure what they mean by "high value" here.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Perhaps read beyond the first sentence.
|
| > Neal's Yard Dairy sells Hafod Welsh for PS12.90 for a 300g
| piece, while Westcombe costs PS7.15 for 250g and Pitchfork is
| priced at PS11 for 250g.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Well, the whole block is still pretty expensive.
|
| To convert it to American, I think that is like $8/lb or so? So
| it is a little more expensive than Tillamoook (which is a
| decent, but definitely mass market, brand) but same order of
| magnitude.
|
| Although I guess that must be the wholesale price.
| joshstrange wrote:
| If you also saw the line:
|
| > Westcombe Dairy's maturing cave is equipped with cheddar-
| turning robot, nicknamed Tina the Turner
|
| And wanted to see it in action, here is a video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDLJwmdonIo
| Ductapemaster wrote:
| Awesome!
|
| That is a vastly more complex machine and action than I was
| expecting. Seems like there is more to the process than just
| flipping it over.
| joshstrange wrote:
| Yep, I thought the same thing. The comments/description said
| it brushes the outside for cheese mites/dust/etc and then
| flips it.
| ahazred8ta wrote:
| This is not the first time a cheese facility has had a security
| breach. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NEPfNrRBnDs (IBM cheddar
| cheese hack ad)
| fecal_henge wrote:
| That was wonderfull.
| throw0101a wrote:
| See also perhaps:
|
| > _The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist (French: vol de sirop d
| 'erable du siecle, lit. 'maple syrup heist of the century') was
| the theft over several months in 2011 and 2012 of nearly 3,000
| tonnes (3,000 long tons; 3,300 short tons) of maple syrup, valued
| at C$18.7 million (equivalent to C$24.1 million in 2023) from a
| storage facility in Quebec. The facility was operated by the
| Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (French: Federation
| des producteurs acericoles du Quebec, FPAQ) which represents 77
| percent of the global maple syrup supply.[1]_
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Hei...
| ptek wrote:
| I wonder if this is the start of a new criminal market and if
| there are any heavies involved or the big players involved?
|
| Any one know if any cheese is showing up on the dark nets?
|
| It's not illegal, illegal so it should get through the post
| easily and use refrigeration transport and less hassle if you get
| pulled over by the cops.
|
| Some countries like New Zealand are pretty strict with dairy
| imports so trying to get brunost from Norway...
| tristramb wrote:
| Another excuse for Michael Palin:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1JWzyvv8A
| fanatic2pope wrote:
| Co-incidentally, Palin kept an office in Neal's Yard!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal%27s_Yard
| edanm wrote:
| Food heist!
|
| If anyone here is a fan of Brandon Sanderson but doesn't listen
| to his podcast with Dan Wells, called Intentionally Blank, you
| might enjoy it. And one of their things is to start off most
| episodes with a news story about a food heist - this apparently
| happens a lot.
| foo42 wrote:
| Thanks for the recommendation. I've enjoyed a lot of Sanderson
| books (although not all of them clicked with me) and I'm always
| looking for a new podcast
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Reminds me of the story from the expanse lol
| ed_mercer wrote:
| Hey, I was looking for this comment ;)
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-10-26 23:06 UTC)