You can get it anywhere. On a flight, in a car, on a table or in a bun. Cheese is part of our daily lives and food choices. For the lactose-tolerant among us, cheese is something that tops many meals.
But one popular cheese may be more than only milk and salt.
In February, an FDA investigation found that Castle Cheese Inc. was doctoring its grated parmesan.
Instead of containing only parmesan, the cheese was cut with a high percentage of wood pulp or lower grade cheddar, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Castle Cheese Inc. isn’t alone. After further investigation, many popular grocery stores and fast food chains not only use cellulose in their cheese, but in a variety of other products. When tested, many were more than the 4 percent suggested.
When food scandals such as this occur, it is up to the grocery store or fast food chain to examine its suppliers to hold them to product standards.
Consumers should not be subjected to high percentages of food fillers without their knowledge.
Consumers should continue to educate themselves on what they eat and put pressure on grocery stores to examine their supply chains.
There is a chance the last time you sprinkled some grated cheese on your pizza, you were eating wood pulp.
If you flipped around the container it would have been labeled as cellulose.
The good news is, in small doses cellulose isn’t harmful, as long as it makes up less than 4 percent of the food.
According to a Bloomberg Businessweek article, few companies passed that hurdle.
When Bloomberg independently tested a number of cheeses, Jewel-Osco and Walmart brands tested at 8.8 percent and 7.8 percent cellulose. Kraft tested at 3.8 percent, right under the limit, and even Whole Foods, known for its pure ingredients and organic focus tested at .03 percent, despite not having cellulose listed as an ingredient.
What makes this situation so disappointing is that consumers rely on retailers such as Walmart and Whole Foods to be transparent.
Unable to personally visit the dairy farms or creameries, we trust these stores to carry products that we will be able to consume.
In short, we expect the food we eat to be made of food. Not wood pulp.
The blame can be attributed to three parties: to the companies using the disproportionate amount of cellulose, the FDA for not catching this sooner and for consumers for not educating ourselves.
While we can’t individually solve the first two problems, we can work to be more educated. By being aware of the food we eat and what goes into it, we can hold producers such as Kraft and Castle Cheese Inc. to higher standards.
Situations like this have happened before. Back in 2011, a University of California study found 69 percent of the olive oil in the United States had been doctored. Many of the oils were mixed with cheaper soybean oils and then had their flavors masked, the New York Times reported.
It took media attention and consumer outcry to increase standards of the olive oil industry and bring change.
When topping your pizza there are a number of alternatives. The first is to skip the cheese. However, if the parm is calling your name, check the back of the container to see if cellulose is listed.
In our economy, dollars are cast like votes. Back the type of cheese you want: pure parmesan, no wood pulp.
wkiepura@indiana.edu
@wkiepura
