Related Stories
FDA May Destroy American Artisan Cheese Industry
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Forbes
Posted: June 16th, 2014
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/06/09/fda-may...
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an executive decree banning the centuries old practice of aging cheese on wooden boards. Consumers who eat any kind of aged cheese should prepare for a potentially catastrophic disruption in the market for artisan, non-processed cheese. The FDAs decision will not only harm American cheese makers, but may also bring a halt to the importation of artisan cheeses from abroad, as Canadian and European Union regulators have not imposed such draconian measures and still allow for the use of wood boards to age cheese. Corporate cheese makers like Leprino and Kraft will be able to weather this regulatory storm they dont make cheese, they manufacture cheese, and as such they do not follow the centuries-old [artisanal] techniques. But for small businesses and artisan cheese makers, wood boards are in fact essential to the making of cheese. As cheese expert Gordon Edgar writes, wood creates a beneficial environment for cheese. After all, what is cheese but a great achievement of the microbe community? Edgar notes that wood is essential to the flavor of artisanal cheeses: "Over the last 30-40 years cheesemakers here in the States have been trying to use the best practices of traditional cheesemakers to give smaller-scale production a taste/quality advantage over the larger (now almost completely automated) factories that dominate the market. [They] rely in part on wood aging. It could be devastating."
Note: The FDA appears to be backing down on this, yet the fact that they would even consider a move which effectively bans traditional cheese while promoting processed cheese shows the true colors of the FDA.
Related Stories
Latest News
Key News Articles from Years Past
