The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a decree that prohibits the old practice of aging cheese on top of wood boards. Consumers should be prepared for the market of non-processed, artisan cheese to be disrupted.
The FDA statement made public last week puts hundreds of businesses in the United States in peril. The FDA announced that wooden racks can't be sanitized and cleaned adequately.
"The porous nature of wood enables it to absorb and retain bacteria, therefore bacteria generally colonize not only the surface but also the inside layers of wood," Monica Metz, chief of the dairy and egg branch of the Office of Food Safety, wrote in a letter to the New York State Agriculture Department at the beginning of this year.
However, FDA appears to back away from the policy when it caused an outrage in the traditional cheese community, which consumers immediately aided by signing a petition that expressed their dismay via social media. Consumers were worried that products such as imported Parmigiano-Reggiano and obscure blue cheeses from Vermont won't be available in the future.
The American Cheese Society released a statement [pdf] making it clear that it is ready to fight the policy if the agency did not change it. It states that large and small cheese makers around the world have been using wood to create nutritious, unique and delicious cheeses for centuries. They reiterated that safety has always been paramount in cheese making and the industry has long been meeting FDA standards. It even enumerated the methods that can adequately clean the wood boards including air-drying, Kiln-drying, inoculation to maintain and create positive biofilm, raising the core temperature of the wood above pasteurization temperatures and sanitation through acceptable products.
1,500 people have already signed a petition to the White House, requesting the Obama Administration to get involved. The FDA and artisan cheese makers have always had a rough relationship and this recent move could doom these cheese makers and consumers. Others have reported emailing the FDA directly and people on Reddit already talking about the future illegal cheese.
As FDA backs away and the cheese industry victoriously emerges, FDA can still promulgate new regulations in the future and cheese makers need to remain attentive as to what the FDA's next move is. FDA spokesperson Lauren Sucher said that the agency would team up with the traditional cheese community and determine what types of cheese can be made safely by aging them on wooden boards. FDA plans to make new regulations.
