Posted on 06/10/2014 2:47:14 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Gabe Luddy, fourth-generation cheesemaker at Vella Cheese Co. in Sonoma, makes his Dry Jack the same way his grandfather and great-grandfather did - he rolls and presses curds into large wheels of cheese, then brines and coats the wheels before sliding them onto wooden racks. There they age, from seven months to several years.
A U.S. Food & Drug Administration statement which became public last week puts this 83-year-old practice in doubt. In what the agency is calling a clarification, the FDA has declared that the wooden surfaces that cheesemakers around the world age cheeses on "cannot be adequately cleaned and sanitized." If the ruling holds, it won't just affect Sonoma Jack. The the Parmagiano-Reggiano you grate over your pasta might also be illegal.
At issue is the interpretation of the FDA's Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations, which state, "All plant equipment and utensils shall be so designed and of such material and workmanship as to be adequately cleanable, and shall be properly maintained."
The cheese society's Weiser says her organization has been besieged by calls from cheesemakers, retailers and legislators.
Vella's Gabe Luddy is more blunt.
"We're talking about a crushing blow to the artisan cheese industry," he says. "For us replacing wood shelves would require a huge capital investment. I don't even know what we would switch to."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
-Thomas Jefferson
Guess someone forget to tell the FDA that that’s how cheese has been made for centuries and there haven’t been any epidemics.
Fk this !
Our government has been overthrown from within by Leftist bureaucrats.
After testing and prodding for a few years they have clearly concluded that Americans no longer have the will to fight back.
This case is particularly frustrating in light of how difficult it is to grate Velveeta.
I think this ruling should be extended immediately to whiskey aged in those unsanitary wooden barrels and the wines aged in wooden casks.
Let the loose the wings of fury from the wine and spirits community.
“First they came for cheese racks, but I didn’t say anything. Then, they came for the whiskey barrels . . .”
The FDA will do their best to make food expensive and lower quality.
You want the good stuff? Get better connections, peasant.
Cheese is a most unique sort of food, in that it is essentially a “living” substance, with changing characteristics over time. Natural cheese harbors the growth of beneficial bacteria, and it is almost impossible for pathogens to grow on the composition of cheese at most stages of its production and aging. The use and re-use of shelves on which the cheese is stored to age insures that the pathogens never get a foothold.
If cheese DOES go bad, there is no question, because then it becomes rotting protein matter. Normally, there is a considerable amount of lactate/lactic acid, a very effective bactericide, and only the cheese bacteria can live in these conditions. When the lactate level gets too low, the natural resistance of cheese to rot and decay is lost, then MAYBE the FDA has a valid point.
But I suspect a very political decision by somebody that has little understanding of the art and science of cheese making, who got promoted into a job way beyond his competence and understanding.
The USDA can't have my wooden cheesepress, or cheeseboards.
/johnny
it is time to do away with government that believes it is God and micromanages every aspect/of your life.
The government hasn't had to eat one ounce of that fecal stew above that they cooked up for the rest of us peasants.
Heaven help us if they ever move against canned food.
I don't think it's political. Who benefits? This is the work of some utterly oblivious bureaucrat.
Is this a racist policy?
Watch out! Air and water are next! There is no limit to their lunacy.
So what about imported cheese will it be banned if the same practice is observed?
/johnny
Hillary said they have to take some things away from you for your own good.
Just pushing the prices higher, because Italian food is cheaper to make...pasta etc...must have Parmesan. I am so disgusted by this group of imbecils who don’t even know about the processes used for hundreds of years...centuries in some places.
Someone must have gotten mad at an Italian Restaurant or dumped by a Parmesan Company employee...it’s always because they can.
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