Cheer cheese

Background In 1916, Fred Walker – after having had some success with manufacturing foods – learnt of Chicago businessman James L. Kraft's processing method of halting the maturation of cheese. Walker went to the United States to meet him and acquire the Australian rights to use this method. He began a partnership with Kraft to manufacture this "processed cheese" in 1925, and in May 1926, the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. was registered – the parent company of Kraft Foods Ltd. Red Coon (1931–1959) From around July 1931, Walker had hired Cyril Callister as chief scientist and production superintendent of his factory, and the Kraft Walker recipe for processed cheese. Callister also built up a well-staffed laboratory at the factory. According to author, academic and activist Stephen Hagan, Red Coon cheese used a different method to Coon's, as it was pasteurised, which was not part of his patented process. In November 1934 Kraft Walker leased the factory owned by Warrnambool Cheese and Butter at Allansford, and soon expanded it. and described as "mature cheese". It is described as "mature" in many advertisements and articles in the 1950s, although one article explicitly excludes it from the category of Cheddar cheeses. "Red Coon" cheese was referred to in a discussion about grading cheese in the Queensland Parliament in December 1958. Coon (1959–2021) In 1959, Coon "Tasty" cheese started appearing in the press, with an illustrated advertisement showing labels which call the processed product "cheddar" and the Coon variety, sold in packages, described as "Kraft natural tasty Coon Cheese, fully matured", with a "robust flavour men really appreciate". A 1961 ad, also in the ''Australian Women's Weekly'', shows a slightly different label, including the information that it is "Manufactured in Melbourne" by Kraft Foods Ltd. The ad says it is "aged to full maturity", and its marketing suggests its appeal to "active men". 21st century Lion Dairy & Drinks operated the brand for some years, until Warrnambool Cheese and Butter bought back the brand in May 2015. The company generated a A$30.6 million net profit in the previous year. ==Naming controversy==

The former product name, which it shared with a racial slur, was defended by previous manufacturers Kraft Foods and Dairy Farmers despite decades-long campaigns to change it, including through challenges to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 1999 and Advertising Standards Bureau in 2001 by activist Stephen Hagan. In the public debate raised by the campaign to change it, some of those who objected to the change of name claimed that the term was not used as a derogatory term in Australia, rather being an American racist term. However, Hagan and QNews reporter Destiny Rogers have said that the research in their e-book, COON: More Holes than Swiss Cheese, shows the term was used in Australia as a derogatory term for Indigenous Australians as well as other people of colour, and was especially common between the 1870s and 1939 before fading from the language during World War II and coming back into use in the 1970s. On 13 January 2021, Lino A. Saputo, the chair and CEO of Saputo Inc., announced the new name as "Cheer" cheese. He said, "Treating people with respect and without discrimination is one of our basic principles". A number of other Australian companies also rebranded some of their products which have names with racist connotations in 2020, and others face pressure to do so. , Hagan is claiming legal damages of for what he calls "21 years of corporations undermining his claims that the cheese brand was not named after...William Edward Coon". ==Coon's process==

In 1926, American entrepreneur and cheesemaker Edward William Coon of Philadelphia patented a method for fast maturation of cheese via high temperature and humidity, His method explicitly excluded pasteurisation, which kills all bacteria and therefore allows cheese to last for much longer when stored. Coon was kept on as manager From around October 1942, Kraft began to market a cheese as "Kraft Coon cheese" in the US, although it was not registered as a trademark until 1949. == Notes ==