This week the FDA announced it will not permit American cheesemakers to age cheese on wooden boards, potentially destroying the ability to make or import a wide variety of artisanal cheeses. Despite being legal in the various cheese making states and having been used for hundreds of years, the FDA is cracking down under the Food Safety Modernization Act. A sampling of cheeses impacted: Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Cabot Clothbound, Marieke Feonegreek, Bleu Mont Bandaged Cheddar, along with parmesan, aged cheddar and the only American produced Limburger.
Critics quickly point out that there is no proof of any actual illness due to boards used in cheese making and that the FDA's interpretation of underlying studies is misguided.
Cheese boards are a part of preserving the (bacterial) culture that generation after generation allows a cheesemaker to reproduce artisanal cheese. A brief introduction to cheese making (especially in Wisconsin) and the use of wood.