Ensuring Food Safety In A Family-Run Cheesery

South Africa’s deadly listeriosis outbreak in 2018 showed how a food brand could suffer devastating consequences from shortcomings in its food safety system. The Gourmet Greek, a dairy business in KwaZulu-Natal, is taking no chances in this regard. Lloyd Phillips reports.

- Lloyd Phillips

In 2012, after only six months of retirement, Dimitri and Rosemary Dimitriades cashed in their savings and bought a 7ha smallholding in the Lions River area of the KwaZuluNatal Midlands. Dimitri had a dream of manufacturing carefully crafted dairy products in the renowned style of his Greek ancestors, and the couple began experimenting with recipes for various yoghurts and cheeses. Through hard work and determination, they perfected the recipe for their now-famous, and deliciously rich, double-cream, strained plain yoghurt, registered and established The Gourmet Greek brand, and began selling small batches of the yoghurt to local eateries, delicatessens and retailers in December 2012.

Iakovos, the couple’s son, says that in the first year of operation, his parents, assisted by only one employee, sourced and processed about 300â„“/ week of locally produced fresh Jersey milk into Greek yoghurt. After award-winning celebrity chef Jackie Cameron tasted the yoghurt, she nominated it as an entry into the Eat Out DStv Food Network Produce Awards, and it came top in the Best Small Producer (Dairy) category.

Through word of mouth, demand for the yoghurt skyrocketed. At the same time, Dimitri and Rosemary started producing a small range of Greek-influenced cheeses.

Business increased so much that the entire family became involved. The couple’s daughter, Filia, recalls that by the end of 2014, she and her parents were regularly working 12- to 16-hour days and were “at the point of physical and emotional burnout”.