A grandmother who supplies award-winning cheese to some of the country's top restaurants says strict food rules are crippling her business.
Biddy Fraser-Davies, 74, whose cheese was served at Prince George's Government House playdate in 2014, has created a business from hand-milking the five cows on her Eketahuna farm.
The thermised (partially heat-treated) cheese she created was sold at upmarket Auckland restaurants including The Grove and The French Cafe.
But the process, which she did for 13 years, involved lifting heavy pots of milk off the stove which exacerbated her arthritis.
Not wanting to give up on cheesemaking, Ms Fraser-Davies switched to making raw cheese a few weeks ago to avoid heavy-lifting - but she says she has become locked in a "cheese battle" with the Ministry of Primary Industries over required tests that make the process so expensive, it almost prevents her from doing it.
She has pre-orders from Auckland Italian food store Sabato for the new product but has been been unable to sell it as she waits for MPI sign-off.
Under MPI rules, raw cheese is typically tested for E.coli and listeria, a spokeswoman for the department said.
A new raw cheesemaker is subject to a trial period when their product undergoes additional testing to confirm the cheese is safe.
Prices for the testing varies as it is done by private companies, the spokeswoman said.
The typical number of cheeses MPI had approved during a trial was about 10 but Ms Fraser-Davies said she had had 13 cheeses tested and paid a little under $5000.
The thermised cheese she made cost a few hundred dollars a year to test, she said.
She said her cheese production each week was much smaller compared to bigger companies so the cost was crippling.
"It's trying to attack a problem with a sledgehammer and it doesn't do for small artisan cheesemakers," Ms Fraser-Davies said.
"I don't want to get any bigger, my desire for world domination has ceased a little. I just want to be able to make and sell raw cheese."
She sells her thermised cheese for $60 a kilo but says she would have to sell her new cheeses at a price no one could afford to pay for the tests.
She is speaking at a select committee on Thursday about the Food Safety Law Reform Bill which was proposed after an inquiry into the Fonterra botulism scare in 2013 recommended the Government tighten up its rules.
"At my age I haven't got many years left to live [and] I would like for artisan cheese makers in the future to have a more sensible system they can operate under."
There are thought to be three raw cheese providers in New Zealand.
Ms Fraser-Davies says she is currently spending her and her husband's savings on the testing costs and has not been able to make a profit since starting her new business venture.
"From a financial point of view it's a disaster.
"We haven't paid ourselves a salary. We've had two nights away in 12 years and we live very simply."
She already had an annual cost of $5500 for auditing and compliance. She also spent over $12,000 on MPI recommendations last year to improve her cheese room like replacing a wooden bench with stainless steel.
The MPI spokeswoman said a review on the regulations was not being planned.
"MPI has worked hard to keep costs down. However, we cannot take shortcuts on food safety, particularly when dealing with high-risk foods such as raw milk cheese."
Ms Fraser-Davies also struck trouble in 2009 when her thermised cheesemaking aired on an episode of Country Calendar. She said that within minutes, she was emailed by authorities to say she was acting illegally without a risk management plan and her costs went up.
Ms Fraser-Davies won a super gold award at the 2014 World Cheese Awards in London with her traditional Cwmglyn farmhouse cheese.