MADOC — The Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) has given the Eldorado cheese plant five million litres of plant milk quota for kosher cheese.

The Madoc plant started operation in March, with two million litres of milk, all transported from Cornerview Farms, owned by the Schouten family of Richmond, in rural Ottawa.

Michael Rosenberg, one of three owners, says the market has a potential for about eight million litres, based on projected Canadian consumption figures. The average Canadian eats about 12 kilograms of cheese annually, Rosenberg says, but a practicing Jew eats only about eight kilos. "He (a Jew) has never eaten a cheeseburger or cheese with meat."

Because of the purification laws in the Old Testament, Jewish cheese can not be made from rennet, an animal product. Enzymes must be used instead and the processing of the milk must meet all the technical requirements of Jewish rituals. A rabbi from Montreal supervises the milking at the Schouten farm and when the milk truck leaves, the rabbi places his seal on the milk tank.

When the milk arrives at Eldorado, a second rabbi checks the seal and supervises the production of cheese. No one is allowed into the plant without the rabbi present. The additional supervision allows the owners to call their product "ultra kosher"

Before Eldorado started operating, ultra kosher cheese was imported from Israel and the United States.

"When we started," Rosenberg says, "The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade slapped a 245 per cent tariff on ultra kosher cheese coming into the country." The tariff gave Eldorado the opportunity to build their market.

"We have a small market," he says, pointing out that about 85 per cent of the 100,000 orthodox Jews in Canada live in Montreal or Toronto.

Ed Schouten, one of the owners of Cornerview Farms, says adjusting wasn’t easy. "We had a nurse tank (second tank)" and that enabled the farm to separate the milk. The Schoutens milk about 440 cows three-times a day. About 80 per cent of their milk goes to Eldorado.

He says he enjoys the presence of the Rabbi. He pitches in, listens but also offers advice. He’s very meticulous when it comes to everyone following the rules of cleanliness, he said. Plant quota was given free-of-charge to plants under the Domestic Dairy Product Innovative Program.