Coon cheese

COON is the Australian trademark of a cheddar cheese produced by the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter company (WCB). It was first launched in 1935 by Fred Walker.[1] Coon cheese is named after its American creator, Edward William Coon (1871–1934) of Philadelphia, who patented a method, subsequently known as the Cooning process, for fast maturation of cheese via high temperature and humidity.[1][2][3][4][5]

COON
TypeCheese
ManufacturerWarrnambool Cheese and Butter
Country of originAustralia
ColourYellow
FlavourVarious types
Websitecoon.com.au

LD&D Foods (who also held a stake in the company) were the previous operator of the brand, until May 2015 when it was sold back to WCB which is majority-owned by Canadian dairy company Saputo Inc.

Origin

In August 1923, The Journal and Republican of Lowville, New York, reported the sale by "E. W. Coon of Philadelphia, maker and shipper of cheese", of five milk plants in villages around Watertown to the Dairymen's League Co Operative Association, Inc. It also stated that

While no announcement is made as to which of the numerous Coon plants in northern New York have been bought by the League, it is understood that the big Cape Vincent plant is not among those transferred... The Coon chain of plants include stations at Brownville, Chaumont, Rosiere, Cape Vincent, Clayton and La Fargeville, with several cheese factories in the surrounding territory... Mr Coon's business has been cheese making primarily...[6]

On 27 February 1926, Coon filed an application for a Process for Ripening Cheese. Patent No 1579196 was issued on 30 March 1926.[7] Coon's patent claimed:

  1. A process for ripening cheese, consisting of supplying, through suitable means, humidified air to a room or chamber set aside for the purpose, the humidified air to have a range of temperature from 45° to 75° F., and a moisture percentage of from 65% to 95%.
  2. A process for ripening cheese having an original moisture percentage of 36% to 40% and subjecting it to a temperature of 55° F., to 70° F., in combination with a humidity percentage of from 75% to 90%.[7]

From 1933, a cheese was marketed by Fred Walker as Red Coon, and was coated with red wax. The wax was later replaced with cellophane, and the red stripe in the logo is a residual reference to the original packaging.[1]

Naming

The product name, which it shares with a racial slur, was defended by previous manufacturers Kraft and Dairy Farmers despite decades-long campaigns to change it,[8][9] including through challenges to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 1999 and Advertising Standards Bureau in 2001 by activist Stephen Hagan.[10][11] Amid Australian involvement in 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, on 24 July Saputo Inc. announced the name would be changed.[12][13]

British comedian Stephen K. Amos regularly performs a skit on Coon Cheese as part of his live show, due to the word "Coon" also being an ethnic slur used for indigenous and black people.[14]

gollark: I don't. I like having access to the internet and books and stuff.
gollark: By then we'll hopefully have colonized space.
gollark: Eh, different time horizons.
gollark: I'm hoping someone comes up with some comparatively cheap geoengineering solution because it's... more practical than actual coordinated effort to reduce emissions.
gollark: They're on the ground.

References
  1. Coon Cheese – The Full Coon Story Archived 4 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine at coon.com.au
  2. "Abstract from Process for ripening cheese". US Patent 1,579,196. Google Patents.
  3. Reports of the Tax Court of the United States, vol. 21 (1954), p. 543: "Among the assets acquired from Coon was United States Patent No. 1,579,196, issued to Edward William Coon on March 30, 1926. The patent covered a process for curing cheddar cheese at specified ranges of temperature and humidity."
  4. Lucius Lincoln Van Slyke, Walter Van Price, Cheese: a treatise on the manufacture of American Cheddar cheese and some other varieties (New York: Orange Judd Publishing Company Inc., 1952 edition) p. 296: "He cited the process patented by Coon (1926) for producing the black, wax-coated cheese which was known in the trade as 'Coon Cheese'."
  5. USPTO
  6. 'League Buys Five Plants in Jefferson County', in The Journal and Republican of Lowville dated August 30, 1923, online
  7. Coon, Edward William (30 March 1926). "Process for Ripening Cheese" (pdf). Patent No 1579196. United States Patent Office. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
  8. "Coon name to come under the spotlight again". Australian Food News. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  9. Barbeler, David (26 September 2008). "Coon cheese next on anti-racism hit-list". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  10. Visontay, Elias (24 July 2020). "Australia's Coon cheese to change name in effort to help 'eliminate racism'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  11. "Oz row over 'Coon' cheese ad". News24. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  12. "Coon cheese's name to be changed over racism concerns". ABC. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  13. "Australia's Coon cheese to change name in effort to help 'eliminate racism'". the Guardian. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  14. Stephen K. Amos live show at YouTube.com
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