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Bernie Ziebart

The Engineering Perspective





The FDA and cheese

In a statement by FDA’s Branch Chief Monica Metz, the chief official responsible for food safety issues involving cheese, the manufacturing process of aging cheese using porous wood is banned.  


What prompted this regulation? Were the cheese manufacturers experiencing a rash of food-borne illnesses?   FDA spokesperson, Lauren Sucher, claimed that the agency is merely attempting to engage the industry in its manufacturing practices, while being proactive. Engage? It’s a bit more like destroy. In a comparable analogy, Boko Haram is merely attempting to engage the people of Nigeria.  

The process of aging cheese on wooden boards is a practice that has been used for hundreds of years. With hundreds of millions of pounds of aged cheese produced every year, the health and safety record has been spotless.

The Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research compiled research on the subject (there's been a lot of it from France), and it suggests that proper cleaning and sanitization methods can sufficiently wipe out bacteria from various kinds of wooden boards. A 1992 study showed those using wooden cutting boards at home were less than half as likely as average to contract salmonellosis, while those using synthetic (plastic or glass) cutting boards were about twice as likely to do so. 

In Wisconsin there are about 33 million pounds of cheese being aged on wooden boards. This aged cheese is a little more costly than your average velveeta. One of my favorites is a mild apple smoked cheddar cheese by Carr Valley Cheese; aged 4 to 6 months.  It costs about $20/lb.  http://www.schoolhousecreamerystore.net/apple-smoked-cheddar.html

If you like a good sharp cheddar. Renards, from Door County, has a fantastic 14 year cheddar, but it will cost about $45/lb.   http://www.renardscheese.com/14-year-cheddar/

The impact on Wisconsin would be enormous. The cost to Wisconsin revenue with the loss of the multi-billion dollar cheese industry is difficult to comprehend.  This regulation would also kill jobs and cause massive bankruptcies.   Many of the cheese manufacturers have built large underground facilities to age the cheese in tightly controlled environments. Cheese manufacturers take great pride in the cleanliness and quality of their products.

In light of a fabulous track record, why did the FDA issue this regulation? Certainly not to improve the manufacturing practices.  Is the FDA trying to protect the consumer? Depriving the consumer of good cheese isn’t protection.  

From CNN, NPR to the Wall Street Journal, the articles about this FDA regulation reflect a head scratching exercise. But when actions and activities don’t make sense, politics is normally a culprit. Politics is the likely driving force behind this regulation as well. Could it be that the cheese industry hasn’t contributed sufficiently to the Obama campaign? Or perhaps the cheese industry hasn’t enrolled enough of its employees in ObamaCare.  Does the Obama administration want to punish Wisconsin for passing Act 10? An even more likely scenario involves the FDA director, Monica Metz, who was the CEO of Monsanto, the parent holding company to Kraft and holds Kraft stocks in a blind trust.  Kraft stock prices would jump if the competition was eliminated.

From the outside this appears to be extortion; Chicago-style politics.  It's akin to the Mafia drumming up money for its protection racket. Unfortunately, no reporter is cynical enough to dig into the politics behind the regulation.

Fortunately, the cheese industry fought back. Wisconsin regulators will not enforce this FDA regulation without a proper investigation.

On June 10th, the FDA issued a statement that they would not enforce the regulation regarding the wooden aging boards. But they left the door open for future enforcement.

“The FDA has not taken any enforcement action based solely on the use of wooden shelves.



I can answer that last concern.  Yes, cheeses can be safely made by aging them on wooden shelving.  There, now you can go on to other matters.

The statement only brings a temporary relief. It is not a repudiation of the regulation that cheese makers were hoping for. The regulation still stands, just lacking enforcement.  But for now, it’s business as usual.

This is a loud and clear proclamation to cheese makers not to expand their businesses; limit the exposure to aged cheese. This is also a lesson for people in other regulated industries.  When government officials make pronouncements that don’t seem grounded in reason or common sense, and threaten your livelihood with an enforcement action, you must organize and fight back.




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