Poetry bid to fund cheese-row legal fees

A CHEESE-MAKER facing a court battle over claims its products were linked to an E.coli outbreak in which a three-year-old girl died has launched a poetry competition to fund their case.

Errington Cheese is to defend its products in a case brought by South Lanarkshire Council, which has seized batches of its Lanark Blue and Corra Lin cheeses.

The Lanarkshire-based manufacturer is facing spiralling legal bills of more than £200,000.

The court battle centres on whether cheese products made from raw milk are safe to eat and the company’s founder Humphrey Errington is running a poetry contest “in celebration of raw milk cheese”.

He has asked for a minimum of £10 donation from entrants to help with the court fight, which could see his firm go out of business.

Mr Errington said: “The campaign is important, firstly, to raise awareness of the advantages and health benefits of eating raw milk cheese and, secondly, to support the case upon which the whole future of Scottish raw milk cheese making depends.”

Sunday Herald food critic Joanna Blythman, one of the judges of the contest, said: “If Food Standards Scotland kills off Scottish raw milk cheesemaking, and all the jobs and skills that go with it, then the foreign cheese industry will simply move in and take the business.

“We will continue to eat raw milk cheese but it will be made in mainland Europe, not by our own Scottish artisans.”

Prizes being offered in the competition include a meal at award-winning chef Andrew Fairlie’s Gleneagles restaurant.