Poisoning from Green Cheese

The best method the experts advise for guarding against the danger of poisoning is to refrain from eating green cheese.

Every day we hear of one case of poisoning or more, which has made green cheese a danger in the field of public health, especially since some of those who ate it perished as a result of this poisoning.

As for the signs of poisoning by green cheese: some hours after eating the contaminated cheese (usually after two to four hours), the poisoned person feels a bitter discomfort, then nausea followed by repeated vomiting, diarrhea, palpitation of the heart, cold sweat, a drop in blood pressure, and weakness of the heart.

Sometimes the poisoning proves fatal within 24 hours, if the attack is severe and the victim of slight build.

As for the causes of the poisoning, some have attributed them to several factors:

First — verdigris in the vessels used for making the cheese.

Second — the animals' eating of certain poisonous herbs.

Third — contamination of the milk during the cheese-making process by the venom of an insect or a venomous animal such as snakes and other reptiles.

The truth is that all these causes are incorrect, since poisoning by green cheese belongs to the category of poisoning by foodstuffs, as with meats, fish, and sugary foods such as "cream," for example.

Green cheese is produced by the curdling — that is, the coagulation — of goat's milk or cow's milk; it is sold at once for consumption, or is salted and sold after a few days, without being given time enough to ferment and become one of the ripened cheeses such as kashkaval, Roquefort, and others.

The milk used for making this cheese is warmed and rennet is added to it; it is not boiled, since boiling makes it unfit for curdling.

Green cheese becomes poisonous as a result of its contamination with "staphylococcus" germs, which multiply rapidly and secrete a poisonous substance called "toxin" that causes these mishaps to those who eat green cheese. The "toxin" is stable and is not affected by high heat. Hence boiling or scalding the cheese is of no use, and the prevailing belief that boiling or scalding the cheese wards off the harm is an incorrect belief.

"Staphylococcus" is a parasitic germ — that is, it lives upon other, non-living matter — and it is found abundantly in nature. This germ is found abundantly in a great number of persons, on the skin of their bodies, in their nasal passages, in the tonsils, and on their hands, where it causes them no harm whatever. We find these germs in animals, especially in the udder, particularly if the udder is affected with inflammation or has been affected with inflammation at some time past. The "staphylococcus" germ has several sources, and its spread is aided by the ignorance of livestock raisers and cheese makers in matters of public health and cleanliness.

There are many kinds of the staphylococcus germ, but fortunately only one among these kinds is poisonous.

This poisonous kind finds a favorable environment for its multiplication in the milk prepared for cheese, and it secretes the poisonous "toxin" substance that causes the cases of poisoning.

The activity of the "staphylococcus" germ begins when the milk is warmed, and the germ continues its work throughout the curdling and straining process, and even after the pressing of the cheese into rounds.

Salt limits the multiplication of most bacteria, but it has no effect whatever upon the "staphylococcus" germ; indeed, salt helps the "staphylococcus" germ to multiply in an indirect way, by preventing the other germs from growing — those germs which restrain the work of the poisonous "staphylococcus" germ.

There are several factors that help to make the cheese poisonous at the time of its making, and it is worth setting these factors out in order:

First — contamination of the milk with the microbe by the animal itself, since it carries the germ.

Second — contamination of the milk with the microbe by the owners of the livestock themselves or by the cheese makers.

Third — the vessels and cloths used for making cheese are easily contaminated and thus become a permanent source of the "staphylococcus" germ if they are not thoroughly sterilized after every cheese-making operation.

Fourth — warming the contaminated milk and keeping it lukewarm for a few hours creates for the microbes an ideal atmosphere for their multiplication.

Fifth — the resulting milk curd is exposed to contamination with the "staphylococcus" germ through the vessels used for straining and through the hands of the persons engaged in making the cheese.

Sixth — the salting of the cheese, commonly held to be the ideal method of preserving cheese, becomes in such a case — that is, when the cheese is contaminated with the poisoning germ — a cause of increased danger.

How can cheese be prevented from becoming poisonous? It may be said that this problem is a very complicated one and has not yet been studied practically among us; it has therefore been difficult to answer this question.

There is one way only to save ourselves and to save our families from poisoning, and that is to refrain from eating green cheese.

Yet such measures, even were they imposed by law as is the case in Lebanon, may not solve the problem of the green-cheese industry from the economic and social standpoint, because a large number of persons make their living from the making and the trade of green cheese — an industry that consumes a quantity of milk.

What is beyond doubt is that public health, for us, is fundamental; and of what use is material profit if we expose ourselves to the danger of poisoning?

Green cheese has up to now caused hundreds of cases in Lebanon, and the scientific laboratories in Lebanon are engaged in studying this subject, which will require a long time before a decisive result is reached.

In any case, our scientific effort — and these are facts from which there is no escape and which must be stated — has not yet succeeded in supplying the methods that would let us make green cheese without its being contaminated by the poisonous germs.

All that we advise is to refrain from eating green cheese, for it is established that this green cheese for the most part carries poison to man. We also advise that the milk we use in making green cheese be used instead to make labneh and laban, which do not cause cases of poisoning.