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The Neal’s Yard heist: why luxury cheese is the target of criminals
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The Neal’s Yard heist: why luxury cheese is the target of criminals

Neal’s Yard Dairy says it plans to use a less high-tech approach to prevent future fraud, including visiting buyers in person when large cheese orders are placed, rather than relying on digital contracts and emails.

As for what will happen to the cheddar stolen in the October heist, there may be no quick fix: Given that they could easily be stored for up to two years, the cheese could still do surface in several months.

“A criminal could hide tons and then slowly pass them, truck by truck, through supply chains,” says Ben Lambourne of online retailer Pong Cheese.

For cheesemakers, it’s not just stolen food; the extinct Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork represent modes of agriculture and food production that took thousands of years to evolve, shape landscapes and become part of British culture, yet were virtually lost in just a few generations.

Andy Swinscoe, a cheesemaker from Lancashire, says that at the start of the 20th century, in the area around his shop, there were 2,000 farm cheesemakers. Today there are only five. There were declines in Somerset with cheddar makers, in the East Midlands with Stilton and in the North West with Cheshire cheese.

“It would be impossible for these small family farms to survive selling liquid milk,” says Swinscoe – but they can add value by processing their milk into farmhouse cheese.

Patrick Holden admits that the financial loss resulting from this theft would have had a huge impact on his farm. “Fraud of this magnitude can easily mean the end of a farm and cheese making. ” In this case, Neal’s Yard paid its suppliers in full, describing the effect of the fraud on their business as “a significant financial hit.”

However, unless such crimes are stopped, other farms and businesses will suffer similar blows, especially when luxury cheese remains sought after and prized.

“Conflict around the world, the cost of living crisis and even climate change are increasing the appeal of food fraud,” says Andy Quinn of NFCU. Until that changes, cheesemakers may need to step up their security — and think twice when an order seems too good to be true.