[1] Part of the artisanal cheese-making process is the aging and ripening of the cheeses to develop flavor and textural characteristics.
Many different factors affect a finished artisanal cheese product; these include, but are not limited to, what species of grass is consumed by the cattle that provided the milk source, any sudden changes of heat, and any loss of cultivated yeast, or changes in barometric pressure.
[5] In January 2014, Monica Metz, Branch Chief of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's Dairy and Egg Branch, responded to a New York State Department of Agriculture request asking the FDA to clarify if using wooden surfaces to age cheese was acceptable.
In her response, Metz said the use of wooden surfaces to ripen cheese does not conform to the Current Good Manufacturing Practices.
It was feared this direction as stated by the FDA would harm local American cheesemakers, but also affect cheeses that follow the same practices that are imported from other nations.
Furthermore, they stated there is no Food Safety Modernization Act that specifically mentions the use of wooden surfaces needed in the cheesemaking process.