Darwin Vander Stelt wrote:

I have been making cheese recently with good results and decided to add
dried herbs to some of my cheddar. I considered adding fresh chopped chives
to a batch of cheddar, but was restrained by the fear of botulism. You have
an anaerobic environment inside the cheese, ph of maybe 5.2 or higher, and
moisture. That looked semi dangerous so I sought advice and was told to use
dried herbs. Now I have 2 nice 5 lb cheeses loaded with dried chives, vacuum
packed, aging for 6 months and a year. But I can't figure out what the
difference between dried or fresh might be as the chives quickly rehydrate
in the whey they absorb. Is this dangerous? Experts? If it is dangerous, is
there a process to do this safely?



What's your source on this? The production process' that I'm aware of for
semi-dry cheese don't take botulism into account. Cheese is not a true
anerobic environment, i.e. there's enough free oxygen present that
botulism isn't a risk.

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