The FDA, for its part, is worried about the bad bacteria, like listeria, that can grow on improperly cleaned surfaces and cause illness and death.

"Wood is hard to clean –- that's why they don't allow wooden pallets for some things," former FDA food safety chief David Acheson tells The Salt. And wooden cutting boards? They are not allowed in commercial food service prep, although there are many methods home cooks swear by, including spraying with diluted vinegar or bleach.

As for the cheese aging boards, "There's no question there's a risk," Acheson says, but the question is, how much. "I'm not aware of any evidence that the wooden boards on which cheese is aged led to listeria outbreaks," he says.

Although it's not the first time FDA has picked a battle over bugs — mimolette, anyone? — this time, "it really put a rocket under the cheese industry," he says.

"The very pillar that we built our niche business on is the ability to age our cheese on wood planks, an art that has been practiced in Europe for thousands of years," Wisconsin cheesemaker Chris Roelli told the blog Cheese Underground — one of the first to report on the issue.

Cheesemakers have already gotten members of Congress involved to prevent the FDA from taking away their boards. Rep. Peter Welsh of Vermont and several bipartisan colleagues sent this letter to other House members, which reads in part:

"Artisan cheese makers already have rigorous protocols in place to assure the safety of their product. Instead of banning a centuries-old aging process and triggering a possible trade war with Europe, the FDA should take a deep breath and work collaboratively with food scientists and cheese makers to ensure their products meet the high standards expected by cheese loving consumers around the world."

By Tuesday night, it seemed the FDA had taken a deep breath and suggesting a dialogue with cheesemakers about the cleanliness of wooden boards.

The American Cheese Society concurs that so far, there's no evidence that boards used to age cheese have gotten people sick.

So how do you clean a wooden cheese aging board? The ACS recommends kiln, air and heat drying, as well as sanitizing with "acceptable products."

Copyright 2014 NPR.

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Has The FDA Brought On A Cheese Apocalypse? Probably Not