Parmesan Should Not Grow On Trees
Those of you who think government protects you, think again.
It took a tip to the FDA for them to discover that -- as Lydia Mulvany reports at Bloomberg -- "Castle Cheese Inc. was doctoring its 100 percent real parmesan with cut-rate substitutes and such fillers as wood pulp and distributing it to some of the country's biggest grocery chains."
Mulvany explains that some brands promising 100 percent pure cheese were found to have no Parmesan at all:
Some grated Parmesan suppliers have been mislabeling products by filling them with too much cellulose, a common anti-clumping agent made from wood pulp, or using cheaper cheddar, instead of real Romano. Someone had to pay. Castle President Michelle Myrter is scheduled to plead guilty this month to criminal charges. She faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine....Cellulose is a safe additive, and an acceptable level is 2 percent to 4 percent, according to Dean Sommer, a cheese technologist at the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wisconsin. Essential Everyday 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, from Jewel-Osco, was 8.8 percent cellulose, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese registered 7.8 percent, according to test results. Whole Foods 365 brand didn't list cellulose as an ingredient on the label, but still tested at 0.3 percent. Kraft had 3.8 percent.
"We remain committed to the quality of our products," Michael Mullen, a Kraft Heinz Co. spokesman, said in an e-mail. John Forrest Ales, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said he questioned the reliability of testing a single sample and that Wal-Mart's "compliance team is looking into these findings."
Jewel-Osco is also investigating, spokeswoman Mary Frances Trucco said in an e-mail. "We pride ourselves on the quality of products we deliver for our customers," Trucco said.
...Until recently, there was little incentive to follow labeling rules. Criminal cases are rare. That's because the FDA, which enforces the country's food laws, prioritizes health hazards, said John Spink, director of the Food Fraud Initiative at Michigan State University.
Oh, about the job the FDA does, they're very sorry, all you dead people who got scoped -- for decades -- with bacteria-transmitting equipment.
"Those of you who think government protects you, think again."
And of course, and once again, the reality is somewhat different. For instance, trucking companies once hauled trichlorethylene in the exact same tanker used on following trips for milk.
Corporations will protect you. Right. Thank you for posting yet another example of how you and I, the consumer, cannot determine what we are being sold.
Next time you're on the road, perhaps in a tiny hybrid, you won't be leaked-on and contaminated because of handling restrictions with the force of law; and of course, just as with food inspection and other construction standards, quality control is NOT inspecting the final product, but in controlling the process and making safety measures public knowledge.
Even when the public is apparently addicted to drama and cites the actually rare occasions that make the news.
Radwaste at February 17, 2016 2:28 AM
I remember back in the middle 1980's there was a similar scandal over bakeries adding wood fiber to whole-grain wheat bread. Hey, fiber's fiber, right?
Robert Evans at February 17, 2016 6:12 AM
This makes me so glad that I grate my parmesan.
Years ago, I decided that it was worth the extra effort to buy parmesan whole and then use my cheese grater. Just cut off a piece of cheese and put it in the grater and crank away.
It seems more expensive since whole parmesan isn't cheap; But, I have found that I use less than the already-grated stuff since fresh grated has a lot more flavor. The pre-grated canister stuff I'll end up adding more and more since it has so little flavor; so why bother? The whole cheese has more flavor and since I use less it costs about the same.
As for clean up; sometimes I've ended up just putting the grater, with some cheese still in it, into the fridge - cheese and all - inside a plastic bag. Ready for the next time I want some.
charles at February 17, 2016 6:25 AM
Yeah, off-the-shelf grated parmesan is tasteless. Even if it's not adulterated, it's usually made from low quality cheese. I buy shaved parmesan, because it's a lot harder to hide low quality in that form.
Cousin Dave at February 17, 2016 6:49 AM
Radwaste, public knowledge allows us to say "They should have known" but there's two problems with that. Apart from its general uselessness.
First is the public's rational ignorance of specialist topics, second is the public's poor risk assessment skills.
If one were to tow a CO suburb down the hill and park it outside a CA nuclear plant, it would be condemnations and moonsuits from one end to the other. Probably because a generation of duck and cover drills had some weird mental results.
phunctor at February 17, 2016 3:13 PM
Oh, about the job the FDA does, they're very sorry, all you dead people who got scoped -- for decades -- with bacteria-transmitting equipment.
While that sorry affair had to do with duodenoscopes and CRE infections, the simplest explanation for my being a C. Diff carrier would be an infected scope for my most recent colonoscopy. Seems those things don't necessarily get completely clean, either.
Colonoscopy in 2014. Antibiotics, followed by diarrhea and flu-like symptoms in 2015, followed by C. Diff diagnosis.
mpetrie98 at February 17, 2016 8:46 PM
I now have the urge to genetically engineer a tree to produce a parmesan-like product from it's branches. It's probably a good thing I don't know enough about cheese.
Ben at February 18, 2016 9:16 AM
I've ended up just putting the grater, with some cheese still in it, into the fridge - cheese and all - inside a plastic bag.
Hana at August 2, 2017 7:13 AM
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