Posted on 06/12/2014 9:48:28 AM PDT by Rusty0604
The FDA is backing away (at least temporarily) from a policy statement that declared cheese makers would no longer be able to age their cheese on wooden boards. The statement caused outrage in the artisan cheese community and consumers quickly came to the aid of the industry signing onto a petition and expressing their outrage through social media.
Today, the FDA claimed that it in fact had not issued a new policy, they stated:
The FDA does not have a new policy banning the use of wooden shelves in cheese-making, nor is there any FSMA requirement in effect that addresses this issue.
Good for the FDA for backing down. Although its unfortunate that they are dodging accountability by claiming they did not change their policy.
The American Cheese Society released a .PDF version of the statement by FDAs Branch Chief Monica Metz...The use of wooden shelves, rough or otherwise, for cheese ripening does not conform to cGMP requirements...
This is also a lesson for people in other regulated industries. When government officials make pronouncements that dont seem grounded in law or policy, and threaten your livelihood with an enforcement action, you must organize and fight back.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
If the FDA knew what was on the surface of most cheese anyway (look up cheese mites) they would likely ban it all.
Score one for the little guy against Big Business.
FDA better not move my cheese!
Very few cheese are made with cheese mites.
They are probably just reloading. Maybe some people will get sick eating cheese.
But - Did you the FDA’s clever lie in those phrases?
The FDA did not “have” a policy (rule) “in place” banning cheese board aging => THEY WERE PLANNING ONE!
The FDA (FMSA) requirement is not “in effect” (today) => It was being written TO COME INTO EFFECT (later)!
Now? Those same bureaucrats are merely angry, hate-filled, and filled with the unfinished zeal of righteous indignation for having been thrawrted!
It is a photo-finish race as to which group I despise more: Bureaucrats, Politicians or Lawyers.
But perhaps these are just varying personae of the same insidious group.
Looks like the FDA discovered what happens when you try to cut the cheese to the public.
we already KNEW how cheesey the democracks are..but Id never have guessed that it might have some earthly value
To answer your question, cheese has been around for a very long time, probably in the neighborhood of 10,000 years.
It also used to routinely sicken and kill people by the hundreds or thousands. Here’s a link to some cases just since the 40s, and limited mostly to N. America.
We have gotten so used to our food supply being safe that we take it for granted, as if it were a fact of life rather than something created by improvements in sanitation, better understanding of food safety, and, yes, regulations.
Which is not to say that all existing or proposed regulations are necessary and appropriate. Only that many of them are.
In China food preparation and processing is largely unregulated, in real terms, and horror stories pop up regularly.
The problem is that bureaucrats are hired to do a job. When the job is mostly complete, these same folks start worrying about their job security. They want to come to work everyday, or at least get a paycheck every two weeks, so, in fear, they look for ways to expand their scope and too often they overreach.
This seems to be one of those.
And the unions need more dues paying members to pay for Democrats elections.
Yeah, that too.
A look at all the things they have backed off of will give a good view of the tyranny they would inflict if left unopposed.
“They are probably just reloading. Maybe some people will get sick eating cheese.”
They’ll try to come in through the back door by limiting the number of rounds you can have on one board. (”Board” is just a cover word for “magazine”!)
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