Kirkham's Lancashire is back

Update 20 February 2024

In December last year the Food Standards Agency and Kirkham’s Lancashire took the precautionary step of recalling various Lancashire Cheese products because of concerns that the products might contain E.Coli. The recall was precautionary and was not specifically related to any illness associated with batches that we sold.

Kirkham's Lancashire is available for sale once again.

Cheesemaker Graham Kirkham has been working closely and openly with his local health inspector. At every stage of this recall inspectors have affirmed that his cheesemaking and hygiene practices are robust and his proactivity and dedication during this trying time has demonstrated that he is a cheesemaker of both skill and integrity. None of over 40 samples taken of Graham’s cheese had a positive result for the pathogen associated with the outbreak.

Neal’s Yard Dairy’s Technical Director, Bronwen Percival, who is also the chair of the Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association’s Technical Committee, has been working closely with Graham to make the case for the safe sale of Kirkham’s Lancashire to the relevant authorities. Bronwen has been in technical meetings with Graham since the start of the recall and she, along with Graham’s Environmental Health Officer and the FSA are confident that Graham’s procedures are robust and the cheese is safe for sale. 

 

 

In 1939 there were 202 farms making cheese in Lancashire, but now the Kirkhams run the only farm making raw-milk Lancashire cheese. The fragility of this status and the vulnerability of this heritage has never been more apparent than over the last couple of months. With the investigation into Kirkham’s Lancashire, the future of the last raw-milk farmhouse version of this important style of British cheese has been threatened, not to mention the status of raw-milk British cheese as a whole. Not only do we want to preserve this endangered cheese and ensure that it isn't lost, like so many other traditional British farm cheeses, but we want to support Graham and his family.

We hope that you can join us in celebrating this heritage, in supporting a small producer and ultimately enjoying a delicious cheese by buying it through our website and in our shop.  

Buy Kirkham's Lancashire