The urge to make life's tastiest noshes safer has put Camembert producers in a dilemma.

The rich, pungent, soft cheese has been made pretty much the same way for hundreds of years, using unpasteurized, unsterilized milk from Normandy cows.

But modern concern with health and possible contamination has prompted a leading producer, the co-operative in the town of Isigny-sur-Mer, to fiddle with the recipe, the Associated Press reports.

The co-op has asked the French body that controls the use of the term Camembert for permission to treat the milk, without the co-op losing its prized appellation d'origine contrôlée (controlled origin) designation.

That handle, also applied to some wines, means only a small amount of the camembert produced worldwide is the real thing, at least according to the regulator.

"I don't want to contaminate consumers," said Claude Granjon, the co-op's assistant general manager.

Traditionalists believe French gourmets want their Camembert made from raw milk, but many of France's largest cheese companies think the tide is running against them.

They've indicated that if the regulator doesn't approve the change, they'll forgo their appellation d'origine contrôlée.

A decision could take a year.