Posted on 06/11/2014 6:07:56 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday that it will not allow cheese makers use wooden boards to age their cheese - a ruling that would effectively wipe out artisanal cheeses.
The FDA's ruling came to light after several cheese makers in New York were cited - despite state laws that allow the use of wood boards.
"Reports showed that the porous structure of wood made it susceptible to the colonization of bacteria on the surface and inside the wood," Monica Metz, the branch chief for the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's Dairy and Egg Branch, wrote in her analysis to the New York Department of Agriculture & Markets' Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services.
There's only one problem: Metz's analysis didn't include the entire findings of the research, AP reports. Research conducted by The University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Dairy Research shows "that while some wood can hide some bad bacteria, it can be eliminated as long as a thorough cleaning procedure is followed."
This is a "potentially devastating development" for cheese makers, said Chris Roelli, a Wisconsin cheese maker. It would put America "at a global disadvantage because the flavor produced by aging on wood cannot be duplicated. This is a major game changer for the dairy industry in Wisconsin, and many other states.
"We do not have a viable option available to us that will do the same things that the wood does to the cheese," Roelli said in an interview with CNSNews.com. "The wood provides a way of controlling moisture, wood provides flavor, and the wood provides a stable environment for the beneficial microbes to grow that allow the cheese rind to develop.
"Wood has been used in cheese making in Europe for thousands of years, from day one of cheese," Roelli said, calling it the "pillar" of his "niche business. If [the ban] goes through, it would severely hamper what we are doing at this point. 85% of the product I manufacture is made to be aged on wood. We don't have a plan B. We would have to start from square one again and reinvent our business."
Wood boards have been used to make cheese for over a thousand years - since the very beginning of cheese making.
New York and Wisconsin's State Agricultural boards allow their cheese makers to use wood.
So how does the FDA have the authority to do this? The FDA is citing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA) signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. FMSA shifts focus "from responding to contamination to preventing it," the Cheese Underground reports. "While most cheese makers have, perhaps, begrudgingly accepted ... increased federal regulations and inspections, no one expected this giant regulation behemoth to virtually put a stop to innovation in the American artisanal cheese movement."
It appears that the FDA is concerned about the spread of Listeria, a harmful bacteria that is a concern in the dairy industry. However, the latest research has concluded that the use of wood for aging cheese is safe, so long as proper cleaning procedures are followed. A study in France found no evidence of pathogens on the board surface or within the wood.
"Considering the beneficial effects of wood boards on cheese ripening and rind formation, the use of wood boards does not seem to present any danger of contamination by pathogenic bacteria as long as a thorough cleaning procedure is followed," a paper from the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research concluded.
The American Cheese Society (ACS) released a statement today saying that it “strongly encourages FDA to revise its interpretation …and continue to permit properly maintained, cleaned, and sanitized wood as an aging surface in cheesemaking as has been, and is currently, enforced by state and federal regulators and inspectors.”
ACS says, “Many of the finest and most renowned cheeses from around the world are at risk of disappearing from the U.S. market if regulatory and enforcement changes under FSMA eliminate traditional materials and methods.”
30 million pounds of cheese are aged on wood in Wisconsin alone per year, calculates John Umhoefer, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. "So we are very concerned as an industry. This ban would have a big impact," he told CNSNews.com.
The Association wants to take the ban to the State legislatures and "make sure the issue is revisited with science, as opposed to just a memo from FDA," Umhoefer said.
There have been numerous "studies on wooden boards and their safety, and we're perplexed by the FDA's decision," he added. "We need to gather that science and put it before the FDA."
Unless a person lives in an apartment or one of those restrictive communities that impose all kind of rules on them, you can plant vegetables almost anywhere. I didn’t make a big garden this year but I did plant tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and squash in the yard. They will grow the same places most flowers will. I plan to build a garden in my side yard next year and will probably plow up the old garden spot too for the larger plants like okra, corn, etc. My daughter plowed up part of our old tobacco allotment field and planted greens for the deer. It’s about an acre and if we do it right we can eat most of the same things the deer do.
We have a lot of farmer’s markets here and if the government leaves them alone, in-season vegetables are very cheap to buy. A lot of the small family owned farms will also let people come in and pick for a small fee. My neighbor plants a five acre field of turnip greens each fall and lets people pick for nothing. At the end of the season he turns it over to let the decaying greens and turnips feed the soil. Works out for everybody. I’m in such a small rural community that we still do bartering.
The liberals are cutting their own throats with this stupidity because they don’t seem to know where their food comes from. Sad.
More small businesses put out of business. Only the politician pocket-lining giant corporations will have license to make and sell food.
My wife started putting her Kimche in mine.
/johnny
And if they can’t say ‘no’, they get so the Republicans are the ones who say ‘no’.
Like the thousands of illegals being helped into America by 0bama. Now that he needs ‘MONEY’ to help them survive, the Republicans again will look like the party of ‘no’ unless they agree.
There is a Dark Force afoot on this land. This Cannot STAND!
That’s funny, I use a wooden spoon when making anything that includes ground beef. Much of the bacteria in it can’t live on wood. So there’s no cross-contamination from uncooked to cooked meat.
That said, what if they just made the cheese as a decorational piece, and advised against eating it? Not their fault if people eat it anyway!
There has already been talk of controlling produce sold in Farmers Markets because the produce being sold doesn’t have the same level of govt control for “health” safety.
Thanks for the info. I'll never look at bleu cheese the same way.
I have been afraid of that. They already stopped our Amish community from selling eggs due to refrigeration. I haven’t heard about them messing with the Farmer’s Markets here yet though. My neighbor finally shut down his dairy and is raising beef cattle now because of the government. A long time ago they stopped them from using or selling raw milk. Some of the locals liked to buy it from him to churn their own butter. When they forced him to sell off most of his Holstein herd to drive up the cost of the milk he just quit. He started cross breeding his remaining Holsteins with beef bulls and now all he has is beef cattle.
Yes, the Dark Force is in the White House..................
Actually, the import of cheese not certified to not having been aged on wood would be conficated when it arrives on US soil. No foreign artisinal cheese will be sold in the US under this rule, destroying a major portion of the foreign cheese market.
Selling the produce at Farmers Markets is no different than the selling of the cheese.
If you follow govt regulations for food safety and you have govt inspection you can do it.
Just your standard Fascism. Support the govt and you can do business.
On the upside, there’s going to be a whole lot of leftover wooden planks that can be burned to warm up the tar buckets...
Thanks for the ping!
Don’t most tyrannies include starvation as a means of control?
The FDA decided since wood floats, all those using wood must be witches.
It’s settle science.
They should just ban cheese.
Problem solved.
So who’s the lobby group or food processor that’s bought off enough FDA clowns to swat down their competition? A fed agency just doesn’t do anything on its own initiative; follow the money and the graft.
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