Good news for cheese lovers: On Wednesday night, the FDA, besieged by the outcry over a newly released document suggesting the agency would start banning cheese makers from aging their products on wooden boards, has walked its statement back. Way back.

The agency first responded to the furor by stating that its position on wood had been on the books since the 1980s. Now it’s retracting even that assertion, effectively disavowing the staff member who issued what she called a “clarification” on the FDA’s position on the sanitary properties of wood. (In Wednesday’s statement, the FDA argued, “We recognize that the language used in this communication may have appeared more definitive than it should have.”)

Not only did one local cheese maker call the impact “a crushing blow,” cheese experts pointed out that banning cheeses aged on wooden boards could end up blocking imports of thousands of tons of European cheeses, including Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Here’s the full statement: