CHEESE from a Lancashire dairy has been blacklisted by the rest of Europe on food safety grounds.

Food safety experts from 25 EU countries backed a Commission recommendation to ban all curd cheese produced by Bowland Dairy in Nelson.

National authorities will also "trace and destroy any curd cheese from this dairy that may still be in circulation", said a Commission spokesman.

The action is a response to what the Commission described as "a series of serious food safety and hygiene problems identified by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) of the Commission".

Bowland Dairy was inspected by the FVO in June this year, and was found in breach of "a whole series" of EU food safety laws, said the Commission - particularly an overriding EU rule banning food unsafe or unfit for human consumption from the market.

"There was evidence that raw milk containing antibiotic residues or contaminated with substances such as detergents and dyes was being used to make curd cheese, as was out-of-date milk collected from retail establishments," said the statement.

"Bowland was also using mouldy and contaminated cheese- including 'floor-waste' - to vacuum-pack for sale.

The Commission said it had alerted the UK authorities and repeatedly demanded action to protect consumers.

The "Bowland case" had been discussed by EU food safety experts on several occasions, but a follow-up inspection in September found no improvement.

"Extensive discussions between the Commission and the UK authorities revealed that they took no effective action to ensure that the dairy came into full compliance with EU hygiene and food safety laws," the statement said.