São Paulo state government dismisses inspector who destroyed production in an artisan cheese dairy

In Ibiúna, in the interior of São Paulo state, the artisan cheese dairy Cabanha Mulekinha had its production arbitrarily destroyed by a State inspector.

The case occurred last Friday, 17, mobilized the Brazilian Association of Milk Producers and came to the attention of the high level of the São Paulo state government, which decided to remove the agent for “suspected irregular actions”.

A meeting in the office of the Secretary of Agriculture of São Paulo, Antônio Júlio Junqueira, attended by producers, inspectors, and politicians, determined the outcome.

Besides investigating the conduct of Ricardo Souza Costa Barão de Aguiar (the inspector responsible for this inspection), the government granted Mulekinha the certificate from the Inspection Service of Animal Products – which had waited four years for recognition.

In addition, the São Paulo authorities committed to indemnifying the company’s owners if the inspection error is proven.

“The actions of the inspector went against the orientation of the current management to always guide the producers about the requirements of the legislation before any punitive measure,” declared the Secretary of Agriculture of the State in a note to the press.

COMPANY STRUCTURE

On March 9, a few days before the raid, the brand had just had its previous registration approved.

The couple Luzita and Airton Camargo, owners of the artisanal cheese dairy, completed the work to adapt the company in July 2022.

Despite their constant requests, they did not receive the final inspection from the state authorities until the end of February.

The couple produces the cheeses according to the Spanish tradition inherited from their ancestors.

They invested around R$300,000 to adapt the production, according to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

“We have made our cheese factory as complete as possible,” Luzita said.

“We have two cooling tanks, an air curtain device to prevent flies from entering, a spring on the doors, so they always stay closed, a sanitary barrier for washing boots and hands, all the piping that takes the milk is stainless.”

“We have a 190-kilogram gas drum to guarantee hot water whenever needed, primary and secondary packaging room, mould pans washing room, tanks, pneumatic press, butter churn, a specific dairy floor in the entire dairy, covered and acclimatized cold chambers, 3.5-meter high ceiling.”

“The entire production can be watched through a large glass window so that everyone can see our whim, there is nothing hidden here.”

THE INSPECTION

Luzita says she was surprised by the behavior of inspector Aguiar.

“In his eyes, we saw the joy of humiliating us, the intransigence, the hatred, the pleasure of using power violently,” she reported.

“He entered our cheese shop messing everything up, threw boxes on the floor, moved things around, then made pictures, as if he had already found the place messy.”

Besides Ibiúna, the inspector is responsible for inspections in Sorocaba and 18 other surrounding municipalities.

Claiming to act in response to an anonymous tip about Mulekinha, Aguiar seized and destroyed almost 266 kg of cheese of various types and 7 kg of dulce de leche.

All were thrown into a dirty truck to be taken to the dump.

The despair made Luzita record an audio venting about the episode.

In it, she says that among the products, there were recipes that had been maturing for months for testing.

With information from Revista Oeste