botulism in cheese?

[watchdog56]

Just got my Rytek book on making sausage-4th edition and on page 14 he talks about food poisoning. He says that "anything smoked in low temp 40F-140F,it should be cured. If you can't cure it don't smoke it. it doesn't matter if it's meat,fish,poultry,cheese or vegetable. Don't take the chance.

He talks about low temps,moisture and lack of oxygen causes food poisoning.

Then why when you cold smoke cheese with temps around 70F and is that safe?

[RAF128]

Seems to me that the milk products used to make cheese have been pasteurized.   

[Quarlow]

The bacterial culture they use to make cheese keeps it stable. The worst that can happen to cheese is you would get mold and the mold on cheese is not going to kill you. If my cheese gets some mold on it I just slice it off and keep eating. Been doing it since I can remember and am still alive and normal. Except for that nervous tick I got. ;D ;D

[watchdog56]

Thanks I have done cheese 4 times with no problem but just wondering what Rytek said in his book.

[Habanero Smoker]

First, I always say you need to prepare and cook your food at your own comfort level. Though Rytek's statement sounds practical, I'm not sure how sound it is. Rather then say I've never gotten sick cold smoking vegetables /or cheese, I did a quick search on the USDA and FDA sites and did not find any warnings on cold smoking vegetables or cheese. Though I will continue to research this.

Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that which produces botulism in foods, needs a pH of 5 or higher, ideally 6. I haven't checked out the pH of most cheese, so I can't confirm that most cheese pH is lower than 5. The only cases of botulism I could find for cheese is a rare case that occurred in cottage cheese, and cases involving cheese sauce.

Other then a food source; water is very important for an environment to grow. Food may have water (moisture), but not all that water is available for bacteria to use. In foods, part of the water is bound tightly to the molecules of the food, preventing it from being used by bacteria. The amount of water available for bacteria is called Water Activity or Aw. This is not a measurement of the amount of water in the food, but the amount of water that is available to bacteria. Aw is measured on a scale of 1.00 as pure water, to 0.00 as bone dry. Meat and fish are rated as 0.99, hard cheese is rated at 0.85; and I am still researching the Aw of most common vegetables. Different bacterias require different minimum amount of Aw to exist and grow. Clostridium botulinum requires an Aw of at least 0.97; therefore in hard cheese there is not enough Aw to create a favorable environment, for this bacteria to grow.