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GOURMET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014 www.gourmetnews.com GENERAL NEWS 1 0 Cheese Continued from PAGE 1 the cheese industry to make rules that work well for cheesemakers, while still pro- tecting the health of consumers. The controversy surrounding wooden cheese boards The power of the U.S. government to shape the way cheese is made in this country was exemplified in June, when, for a brief mo- ment, the FDA appeared to ban the use of wooden cheese boards for aging hard cheeses. After visiting a New York state cheesemaker where poor hygiene practices were allegedly upheld, Monica Metz, Branch Chief of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's Dairy and Egg Branch, wrote a letter to the New York State Department of Agriculture, informing them that "the use of wooden shelves, rough or otherwise, for cheese ripening does not conform to cGMP [FDA] require- ments." With that letter, an entire industry was sent reeling. The cheese industry mobilized a quick response to Metz' letter, and the FDA backpedaled on its initial pronounce- ment, stating only that the agency has historically had some ongoing concerns about whether wood could be safely used for aging cheese. However, the damage to the U.S. specialty cheese community's collective psyche had already been done. The FDA demonstrated that the agency has the power to instantly create a rule cheeses," said Saxelby. "It never hurts to remember that [the FDA] came from big business. They're used to dealing with big business, and what they're going to be looking for from us is a higher level of information, data and justi- fication for them to formulate policies that are advantageous for us," added Bob Wills, President of Cedar Grove Cheese. "We need … to commit ourselves to providing the resources that we need to provide them – information and data – for them to for- mulate their policy." In sum, artisan cheesemakers in this country fully accept that there is a need for government officials to regulate their in- dustry moving forward. However, it is their hope that government officials and cheese- making professionals will be able to de- velop a more collaborative relationship, where data is shared transparently and reg- ulations are established in a coordinated manner. Now, perhaps for the first time ever, leaders on both sides of the board seem hopeful that such a relationship could in fact be developed. The FDA responds Sacramento, California served as the setting for what many cheese industry insiders cited as the most fruitful and substantive conversation between the FDA and the cheese industry, when the FDA's Mike Tay- lor and six other agency representatives sat down with ACS leaders at this year's Amer- ican Cheese Society Conference on July 29. Following the meeting, Taylor expressed his commitment to fostering an ongoing re- lationship between his agency and the in- dustry it regulates. "There are a number of specific issues that are of concern where we need to sit down and have substantive exchange and get data from industry, share what we know – whether it's on the wooden shelv- ing issue or the generic E coli issue – and do substantive work together to figure out what the right answers are on these ques- tions," said Taylor. "That will take multi- ple different forms, but we want to do our work in a way that takes full advantage of what this industry knows about making safe cheese. We know they know a lot, and we want to take advantage of that." According to Taylor, his agency fully respects the traditional artisan cheese- making practices, and he fully believes that there is a way to reconcile these practices with the need to protect the American consumer. "These traditional products have been around a long time, and they don't stay around a long time if they're making a bunch of people sick," he said. "There's a need as we encounter specialty products and traditional prod- ucts for us to really understand how the products are being produced, understand that fully and come to an understanding of how that results in a safe product. Or if there are issues, how you can work with those issues within the context of the traditional practice?" In addition, Taylor also pledged his com- mitment to approaching the cheese indus- try on a more case-by-case basis in the future, eschewing the one-size-fits-all ap- proach to regulation that has too often re- sulted in companies being forced to comply that could effectively put many artisan cheesemakers out of business. And it ap- peared that the industry itself, and its multitude of scientific experts on the subject of cheese, had not even been con- sulted in this case. A growing environment of government regulation The brief banishment of wooden cheese boards is not the only example of the grow- ing encroachment of government into the business of traditional cheesemaking. Last year, the FDA changed its rule regarding the acceptable concentration of cheese mites on the rinds of hard aged cheeses, a move that led to shipments of the popular French comestible mimolette being turned away from U.S. ports. There is also an on- going back-and-forth battle between the FDA and cheesemakers on the subject of raw milk cheeses. And just in the past few months, a new topic of contention has emerged, with federal regulators moving to reduce the acceptable level of non-toxi- genic (or generic) E. coli in cheeses to a level that would effectively ban certain products from market. Over and over again, American cheese- makers state their commitment to produc- ing safe products for consumers in this country and abroad. However, there is a shared frustration with a regulatory system that too often fails to include these individ- uals' voices in the development of industry regulations. "I do think that cheesemakers in this country have a reason to be concerned," said Tom Bivins, Executive Director for the Vermont Cheese Council. "For me, it has more to do with the general lack of under- standing around artisan cheese production. We're taking a very food science perspec- tive and not a more slow food or artisan perspective on cheesemaking in this coun- try. I think that is unfortunate." According to Bivins, American cheese- makers are already hard at work developing the necessary protocols to ensure that their cheeses are being safely produced. "In an eight or ten-hour period, easily half or more of that [time] is spent making sure that all of the safety standards they have put in place are being followed. It's a very safe environment artisan cheesemakers are working in," he said. "In most respects they are following the programs that they are setting in place within their own busi- nesses." With cheesemakers in this country ac- tively involved in studying their industry, developing their own science-based safety solutions and working to self-regulate and enforce those regulations within their own workplaces, industry leaders are calling on state and federal officials to more actively include them in the process of governance. Cheese industry insiders want to fix a broken system At least one federal legislator is demon- strating a commitment to listening to the voices of cheese professionals when it comes to developing a regulatory frame- work for the industry. Immediately follow- ing the FDA's initial pronouncement on wooden cheese boards, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch from Vermont proposed an amend- ment to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill that would ensure that no U.S. Department of Agriculture funds could be used to en- force any rule banning the use of wooden cheese boards for aging. "What our cheesemakers need is a FDA that is predictable and reasonable in pursu- ing its critical mission to promote food safety," said Rep. Welch. "Our cheesemak- ers are committed to the FDA, but they need real predictability." The lack of predictability is only one crit- icism that cheese industry insiders are raising when it comes to the way the FDA regulates their field. Another issue of concern is a lack of clarity when it comes to precisely who has the authority to shape and define their prac- tices. Too often, cheese professionals com- plain that there is conflict between federal, state and even county regulators. "From my point of view, the regulation of cheesemaking is pretty much run by the state. The FDA is the overseeing govern- ment party, but the states do most of the work," said Rene Weber, Vice President of Operations for Emmi Roth. "The FDA and the states have to come a little more in agreement in recognizing each other's rul- ings and not questioning each other." Artisan cheesemakers complain that there is too often a single approach to reg- ulating their industry, when there are vast differences between how operations of varying scale and scope craft cheese. "There is a one size fits all response, and one size does not fit all," said Weber. However, somewhat paradoxically, there is also concern within the industry that standards are too often enforced in a hap- hazard, inconsistent way. If a certain regu- lation is enforced against one cheesemaker, but another finds itself exempt, it results in an uneven playing field. "My experience is that even on a county level, you can go from county to county and things are being enforced differently," said Peg Todloski, Specialty Buyer for Weaver Street Market. "How can we as an [industry] help that happen evenly and consistently throughout the U.S.?" Cheesemakers are quick to point out that theirs is a historic enterprise, and tradi- tional production methods have been em- ployed safely for millennia. "There are centuries-proven ways to make cheese using raw milk and pasteurized milk that is perfectly safe and delicious for the con- sumer," said Anne Saxelby, founder and namesake of Saxelby Cheesemongers in New York City. "I think that we can't forget to continue to communicate the value of these time- less traditions. We've got to preserve those traditions and keep sharing these stories of what [cheesemakers] are doing," added Sam Mogannam, founder of Bi-Rite Market. Still, the cheese industry does not expect the FDA simply to accept the historic na- ture of the industry as an indicator of its in- herent safety. Leaders in cheese are hard at work developing scientific data that shows the processes they employ will eliminate potential hazards. It is the complaint of these science-minded cheese professionals that regulators too often ignore the empir- ical evidence they have collected. "There is a lack of science. I feel like because there is sort of this vacuum of science, the FDA comes in with regula- tions [for artisan cheesemakers] that are more geared toward pasteurized Continued on PAGE 11

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