Neal’s Yard Dairy says it plans to use a less high-tech approach to prevent future fraud, including visiting buyers in person when placing large cheese orders instead of relying on digital contracts and emails.

As for what will happen to the cheddar stolen in the October heist, there may not be a quick fix: Given that it could easily be stored for up to two years, the cheese could still surface many months from now.

“A criminal could hide tons and then slowly move them truck by truck through supply chains,” says Ben Lambourne of online retailer Pong Cheese.

For cheesemakers, it’s not just about a stolen food; The vanished Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork represent ways of farming and food production that took thousands of years to evolve, shaped landscapes and became part of British culture, but were lost in just a few generations.

Lancashire cheesemaker Andy Swinscoe says that at the turn of the 20th century there were 2,000 farmstead cheesemakers in the area around his shop. Today, there are only five. There were declines in Somerset with cheddar producers, in the East Midlands with Stilton and in the North West with Cheshire cheese.

“It would be impossible for these small family farms to survive selling liquid milk,” says Swinscoe – but they can add value by turning their milk into a farmhouse cheese.

Patrick Holden admits the financial loss from this theft would have had a huge impact on his farm. “A fraud of this magnitude can easily spell the end of a farm and cheese making.” In this case, Neal’s Yard paid its suppliers in full, describing the effect of the fraud on their business as “a significant financial hit”.

However, if such crimes are not stopped, other farms and businesses will suffer similar blows, especially when the luxury cheese remains sought after and valued.

“Conflicts around the world, the cost of living crisis, even climate change are all increasing the appeal of food fraud,” says NFCU’s Andy Quinn. Until that changes, cheesemakers may need to beef up their security — and think twice when an order seems too good to be true.