Camembert Cheese Might Be Going Extinct, And We’re Crying

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Anyone a fan of Camembert? The creamy, mushroomy French cheese could soon be impossible to find in U.S., according to VinePair. What’s even worse: if you already love the stuff you find in your local grocery store, that “Camembert” may not be real Camembert at all.

VinePair reports that each year, only four million out of 360 million cheese wheels marked as Camembert are actually produced under the strict PDO Camembert de Normandie guidelines that certify cheese as true Camembert.

The other 356 million wheels may get close, but don’t make the cut as 100 percent authentic Camembert. That means that most likely, what you’re getting in your grocery store isn’t true Camembert. The report also states that because the U.S. mandates that every foreign cheese be aged 60 days to be imported, true Camembert, which should only age for about 30 days, has a hard time making its way across the Atlantic.

But you can’t just go to France to have your fill of the authentic stuff. Even French manufacturers are having a hard time keeping up with production costs and standards. Real Camembert, according to the PDO, includes unfiltered raw milk with a fat content of at least 38 percent. To make production even more difficult, the milk must be made only from northern Normandy cows that eat local grass and hay. Yep, that’s a legit laundry list of standards to meet before the cheese can even get a stamp of approval.

Our best advice: get to France and binge now before even the French can’t make Camembert anymore. (Almost) RIP to a true legend. We guess we’ll cry over our brie instead.

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