FDA rules that cheeses may not be aged on wooden boards.
Legislating cheese isn’t normal. …but on FDA it is. (image credit, heavily altered: Chris Buecheler)
The FDA has begun moving against artisan cheese makers who employ wooden surfaces for aging their cheeses. Monica Metz, Branch Chief of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition said in an official statement, “The use of wooden shelves, rough or otherwise, for cheese ripening does not conform to cGMP [Current Good Manufacturing Practices] requirements.” This is not just a push for sanitation, but an attack on an entire industry’s method of creating their product. As cheese blogger Jeanne Carpenter reports:
While most cheesemakers have, perhaps, begrudgingly accepted most of what has been coming down the FSMA pike, including the requirement of HACCP plans and increased federal regulations and inspections, no one expected this giant regulation behemoth to virtually put a stop to innovation in the American artisanal cheese movement.
Many of the most awarded and well-respected American artisan cheeses are currently aged on wooden boards. American Cheese Society triple Best in Show winner Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin is cured on wooden boards. Likewise for award-winners Cabot Clothbound in Vermont, current U.S. Champion cheese Marieke Gouda, and 2013 Best in Show Runner-Up Bleu Mont Bandaged Cheddar.
This sudden change in policy comes at the direct expense of the smallest cheese makers. Left conspicuously unaffected are giants such as Kraft.
The use of wooden boards to age cheese is a practice that is thousands of years old. It is a cultural practice — a technique passed on through the heritage of an industry. A serious question arises from these points: How did the FDA come to view its mission as including prohibiting cultural practices?
Carpenter points to the FSMA — The Food Safety Modernization Act, which has increased the scope of the federal regulatory agency’s power.
The FDA’s record with that expanded power seems so far to be quite horrendous — if not unexpected. At this point, we should expect large federal bureaucracies to rule in favor of large multi-state corporations — at the direct expense of smaller businesses more tied to particular cultural practices.
Whether taxis, beer — and now cheese — the story is the same. Big protects big to the detriment of all.
Yeah, or, wood is a shitty thing to use in industrialized food production because it is not sanitary and never can be, therefore to keep people safe from potential harm the FDA has ruled that you cannot use unsanitary practices to create food that you intend to sell. This is not a regulation problem, this is a right-wing bullshit article that ignores the point – Joe Average should not be allowed to create his own ‘cheese store’ with plywood and rotten milk in his backyard shed.
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Has this ever happened before? I’d like to know of an instance where someone got sick eating cheese solely because it was aged on unsanitary wood.
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uh… wut? Who the hell tries to make artisan cheeses in their backyard with plywood? French cheese makers have been doing this for hundreds of years, making some of the most delectable and fine cheeses on the planet, and I can’t recall ever hearing about a great cheese epidemic in my 10 years of studying French language/culture. Who is the FDA really protecting? What massive problems have you heard about aging cheese on wood? What major health issues are they dealing with…Wood is more sanitary than plastic, significantly. And most woods can easily be cleaned in hot water or in a warm oven for about 20 minutes. This is completely asinine and horrible, not only for small cheese manufactures, but for all true cheese lovers. Screw kraft and their “processed cheese product.” I’d rather move to Europe then eat that garbage.
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so you complained about the processed garbage and would move to Europe then continue to eat the processed garbage? WTF?
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This article is light in content. I read a more in depth article recently on Forbes about this. The cheesemakers in question are not Joe Average, but “artisanal”, think Roquefort but made in Wisconsin in stead of France. This is definitely a regulation problem in that the normal procedures for the application of regulations,( a system put in place specifically for this type of problem by the FDA) was totally ignored by the FDA. This is a case where the FDA has for decades allowed cheesemakers to age cheese on clean and sanitary wooden boards, upon an inquiry for rule clarification from a New York cheesemaker, they turned around and suddenly said ‘No wood boards’. This has thrown hundreds of small cheesemakers under the bus, as they CANNOT produce the product as specified under the new FDA interpretation. It only benefits Kraft and one other industrial cheese producer as all of their ‘cheeses’ are produced in factories. It also doesn’t address what to do about imported cheese, as 99.9% of imported cheeses are aged on wooden planks, so no more Brie? As I interpret this, it was a huge mistake on the FDAs part, one which they are going to find themselves sued silly over.
P.S.
What Angel Bird said…
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Thanks for the great, informative comment, CheebaMech!
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You clearly have no idea how real cheese is made. Or do you just stick to Velvetta?
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