Nobody question der Leader! Eat your Velveeta cheeze-stuff
and stop whining!
Okay, I’m troubled.
I would say that the citations are probably the result of one person not fully understanding the regulations, and not the result of some FDA policy change.
There was a large listeriosis outbreak in 1988 which was traced to “Mexican-style” cheese being contaminated with raw milk. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198809293191303 The outbreak had nothing to do with curing. Listeriosis in cheese is usually associated with the use of raw milk. It is also associated with soft cheeses. Aging a cheese past 60 days causes the listeria bacteria to die.
There would be reason to ban aging on wood platforms, if disease outbreaks could be traced back to the practice. But they have not.
I age my little cheeses on bamboo mats.
The FDA has already given US cheeses a disadvantage, flavor wise, by forcing us to use pasteurized milk for cheeses aged less than 60 days.