Our Short National Cheese Nightmare Is Over: FDA Backtracks on Wood-Aged Cheese

Earlier this week, I posted about a potential
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) crack down* on
cheese aged on wood surfaces. It’s a practice that’s been going
on for hundreds of years, and
may be more sanitary than aging cheese on plastic.
Cheesemakers, libertarians,
and
a whole bunch
of others were rightly outraged, and began making this
known. 

Well, good news: The FDA announced Tuesday that wood-aged cheese
is safe. From
Dairy Herd Management magazine:

The agency said it did not have a new policy banning wooden
shelves in cheese-making, adding there was no requirement in recent
food safety regulations requiring the agency to address the
issue.

Well, okay, but is there an old policy or an old requirement?
Because in January the agency cited several New York cheesemakers
for using wooden shelves. Industry blog Cheese
Underground said this was unusual, as the FDA has
traditionally deferred to state policy on this; but the rollout of
2011’s Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA) has been compelling all sorts of

weird new FDA meddling. 

When the New York Agriculture Department asked for
clarification, Monica Metz, an official with the FDA’s Dairy and
Egg Branch, said the wooden shelves didn’t conform to FDA “good
manufacturing practice” regulations. But the FDA clarified Tuesday
that it had never taken action against a cheesemaker based
solely on the use of wood. It’s just that these particular
wooden shelves at these particular places were poorly cleaned.

Oh my. Has this all just been so much dairy industry hysteria?
Or is the FDA backpedaling amidst the criticism? From the FDA’s
statement yesterday, it sounds to me like more of the latter.
 

“In the interest of public health, the FDA’s current regulations
state that utensils and other surfaces that contact food must be
‘adequately cleanable’ and properly maintained,” Lauren Sucher, an
FDA spokeswoman, said in a statement.

“Historically, the FDA has expressed concern about whether wood
meets this requirement and has noted these concerns in inspectional
findings,” she said. “FDA is always open to evidence that shows
that wood can be safely used for specific purposes, such as aging
cheese.”

My takeaway from all this seems to be that the FDA isn’t mulling
some major push to end aging cheese on wooden surfaces. But if it
comes across it in (routine?) inspections, cheesemakers may be
cited. 

“Good
for the FDA for backing down,” wrote Forbes
contributor Greg McNeal. “Although it’s unfortunate that they are
dodging accountability by claiming they did not change their
policy.” At
Cheese Underground, Jeanne Carpenter thanked consumers for
writing letters, signing
a petition, posting on Facebook, and generally making “standing
up for artisan food a main-stream American issue.” The FDA’s
“back-stepping in both tone and message is welcome news for the
hundreds of cheesemakers across the country who have invested their
life savings in making premium artisanal cheese and aging it on
wooden boards,” she wrote.

* I despise this phrase, but I’ve yet to find a better
alternative. Taking suggestions…