Milk is a highly complex liquid, with bacteria that influence its composition.

Many cheesemakers have very good reasons to treat the milk they use — if you buy a lot and you don't have direct contact with the supplier then it can become necessary.

The more you go towards factory farming, though, the more the cheese will suffer; taking out bad bugs may result in taking out bugs that you want in there as well. With really first-class production it is best not to mess.

A process such as micro-filtration is certainly an interesting step forward. Yet when it comes to flavour, if you are looking for breadth and depth, untreated milk is inevitably better.

Of course, food safety should always be a worry, in mass production or small-scale cheesemaking. However, when it comes to food poisoning, dairy products have a pretty good batting average.

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