Cheesehounds will recall the debacle of 2005 when the FDA ruled that Americans could no longer consume raw-milk cheeses aged for less than 60 days, causing chaos in the French cheese industry where they scrambled to make pasteurized versions of their soft cheeses for the American market. Now there's a new panic sweeping the cheese world as a pre-existing guideline from the FDA is suddenly being enforced, potentially forcing artisan cheese makers to stop doing something cheese-makers have done for centuries, which is aging wheels of cheese on wood shelves.

The controversy started over a cheese maker in upstate New York who was repeatedly cited by FDA inspectors for bacterial contamination. As the Chron and other report, a clarification from the FDA was requested by a Cornell University specialist, which led to FDA section chief Monica Metz issuing the following statement:

Microbial pathogens can be controlled if food facilities engage in good manufacturing practice. Proper cleaning and sanitation of equipment and facilities are absolutely necessary to ensure that pathogens do not find niches to reside and proliferate. Adequate cleaning and sanitation procedures are particularly important in facilities where persistent strains of pathogenic microorganisms like Listeria monocytogenes could be found. The use of wooden shelves, rough or otherwise, for cheese ripening does not conform to cGMP requirements... Wooden shelves or boards cannot be adequately cleaned and sanitized. The porous structure of wood enables it to absorb and retain bacteria, therefore bacteria generally colonize not only the surface but also the inside layers of wood. The shelves or boards used for aging make direct contact with finished products; hence they could be a potential source of pathogenic microorganisms in the finished products.

It turns out that the banning of wood shelves for the aging of cheese was already in existing FDA rules but had not been enforced, and it's estimated that 65 percent of American cheese producers age their cheeses on wood. The reason is that very porousness — generations of cheese makers have learned that the porousness of wood allows for moisture to wick away from the cheese and prevent bacterial growth. Most cheese makers scrub down their racks between agings, and that same Cornell specialist who contacted the FDA says that "some food safety agencies [i.e. all of Europe and Canada] interpret the science to show that wood boards can be maintained in a sanitary fashion to allow for their use for cheese aging, while others (e.g., the US FDA) believe that a general ban of any wooden materials in food processing facilities is the better approach to assure food safety."

Note that if this rule starts getting taken seriously, it will mean an end to imports of all good European cheese. All. All of it.

The FDA has said they'll consider any evidence that will allow for an exception to their rule, but at the moment, the cheese and importers' lobby is going to be doing a full-court press to get this thing killed.

The Chron talks to local Monterey Jack maker Gabe Luddy, of Vella Cheese, who calls this "a crushing blow to the artisan cheese industry," and says he wouldn't even know what other material to use if they're not allowed to use wood for aging.

Update: The FDA looks to be already backing off on this, and claims that it "does not have a new policy banning the use of wooden shelves in cheese-making" despite earlier reports to the contrary. So let's everyone just calm down.

[Chron]
[RealFarmacy]