FDA finds wood pulp in major American parmesan cheese brands (2016) | Hacker News Reader

FDA finds wood pulp in major American parmesan cheese brands (2016)

time.com

38 pointsznpy33 comments

First, this is old news. And second, it's non-news.

It's entirely intentional and desired. "Wood pulp" is a sensationalistic term for "cellulose", which is clearly listed in the ingredients.

Cellulose is used to coat the cheese to prevent it from clumping and sticking to itself.

Whenever you buy crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola it has tons of cellulose added, or else it would basically just turn into a paste instead of staying crumbled.

Why the $100K fine then?

The article linked within explains it's not about the cellulose, but about the fact that in one particular case, cheese being labeled "parmesan" was actually other cheeses, with 0% parmesan:

> According to the FDA’s report on Castle, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, “no parmesan cheese was used to manufacture” the Market Pantry brand 100% grated Parmesan Cheese, sold at Target Corp. stores, and Always Save Grated Parmesan Cheese and Best Choice 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, sold by Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., which along with its subsidiaries supplies 3,400 retail stores in 30 states. Instead, there was a mixture of Swiss, mozzarella, white cheddar and cellulose, according to the FDA.

That's genuine mislabeling. But it shouldn't be confused with the normal practice of adding cellulose for anti-clumping -- which is what the headline is implying is the scandal.

I wonder if this is why I stopped liking "parmesan" a few years ago.

Powdered cheeses have had anti-caking agents for as long as there have been powdered cheeses. It's possible some brands have started increasing the amount of the agent, but it's not a new practice.

Because they advertised it as "100% cheese". It's a fine for misleading advertising, not for putting wood pulp in the cheese.

Edit: as pointed out below, I misunderstood. It was not actually parmesan, but it did have cheese. From the Bloomberg article:

> Instead, there was a mixture of Swiss, mozzarella, white cheddar and cellulose, according to the FDA.

My original comment preserved for history:

> It's worse than that: that company advertised it as 100% cheese and it was actually 0% cheese. Not just that it had additives, it wasn't cheese at all.

It's not that it wasn't cheese, it's that it was entirely cheese that wasn't parmesan.

"First, this is old news. And second, it's non-news."

If you asked the average person how much wood they thought was in their cheese they'd look at you as if you were crazy.

It's absolutely news because most people have not even the faintest clue that the cheese they buy contains anything but cheese, much less wood products.

I also see nothing wrong with calling cellulose "wood pulp". That's what it is, isn't it?

> I also see nothing wrong with calling cellulose "wood pulp". That's what it is, isn't it?

Of course it isn't. That's like calling glucose "apple".

Cellulose is a compound that is found in wood pulp, but wood pulp contains many more compounds.

The cellulose used for food can be extracted from wood pulp. It can also be extracted from cotton.

But it isn't wood pulp, and it's irresponsible and sensationalistic for a journalist to call it that.

> “I also see nothing wrong with calling cellulose "wood pulp". That's what it is, isn't it?”

wood pulp would be relatively unrefined/contaminated compared to cellulose, which you’d expect to be relatively pure and harmless, so that’s what makes it misinformative. intentional ambiguation like this is a too-common media sensationalism tactic.

Up to a year in prison and a $100k fine.. wow, people get more time for smoking marijuana in the Midwest. Seems like as long as you're a company, you can do pretty much anything and the consequences are minor.

I’m sure that this doesn’t happen to the well-connected, but China executes people for corporate crime (this one killed six children):

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/24/china-executes...

The consequences are pathetic. I'd speculate they wouldn't be going to the roughest of prisons either.

It sounds like the fine is for labeling it "100% cheese", not for putting wood pulp in the cheese? Most brands openly list that their grated cheeses contain wood pulp as "cellulose powder" or something similar. I think the title is a little misleading.

There is a nice anecdote in the chemical industry, that the biggest US customer for lignin (wood pulp), is not a paper company, but rather a restaurant chain that uses it in their ground meat.

Personally, I usually avoid the "beef" items at Taco Bell, although apparently it's an open question whether the lignin might actually make the "beef" healthier.

Needs a (2016), it's an old story.

If you like this, wait until you look at the "acceptable levels of rat feces" the FDA sets for many us "foods"

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-standar...

I feel this story is under-investigated…are the EU food safety standards really zero tolerance for stuff like that? How do manufacturers meet those standards? Is food contamination a substantially bigger problem in the US than the EU?

From what I could find it seems the EU does not actually set enforceable tolerance levels for “light filth” other than a vague “zero-tolerance”. It is, however, pretty obviously stated what the tolerance levels are for different known toxins.

For example, for Denmark, the acceptable standard where no limits are set is “if it’s not dangerous, doesn’t change the food properties significantly and nobody complains”.

That’s roughly what I expected. Of course we would like to imagine that it’s feasible to hit a zero-tolerance target, but at the scale at which food manufacture happens, reasonable and strict maximums are the best we can manage, as long as the products are still safe. That and I knew the FDA was considered one of the top agencies of its kind for quite a while, though I don’t know if this is still the case.

I thought this was well known? The Kraft Parmesan cheese bottle literally lists "cellulose powder" on the ingredients. Never buy that crap.

Why are HNers so dismissive? Every single story like this has an inevitable "thought this was well known" comment.

Most of the general population, would assume that a 100% cheese should not contain wood pulp. The article mentions multiple brands that were "mislabelled", which is clear-cut fraud. Further, most of them did not list cellulose in the ingredients. Even if they did, I'm not sure how lay-people are supposed to understand that this means it is artificial.

Not just the parmesan from that company needs to be avoided.

The strength of the Kraft branding allows them to sell the worst shit.

I remember this craze. For a while it spawned non cellulose varieties but honest to hell it’s just not a problem.

Freshly grated parm is sooo much better anyways.

So you can make parmesan cheese from totally vegan sources? That's amazing news! Just needs better branding!

Please add a (2016) tag.

The headline is misleading, the FDA found cellulose powder, made from wood, probably a benign preservative, in cheap parmesans. One brand had no parmesan, got sued.

Some other "good" brand claims 20% of their competitors are "wood"

Combine this with general skepticism towards Time due to awareness of Gell-Mann Amnesia and knowing how bad their reporting often is, are we sure this article isn't actually native marketing for "Arthur Shcuman Inc" (sic), the "good" brand in the article?

Seems like a lot of FUD about a filler in a processed food product, to me. Powdered parmesan like the kind described in the article is obviously heavily processed and is often shelf stable.

Who on earth thought this was 100% fresh dairy?

The label actually says "100% grated", not cheese. It is intentionally misleading and it's obviously working.

Well, I was going to comment that everyone already knows that low-quality Parmesan (like Kraft) contains "sawdust" (listed as cellulose powder).

Apparently, the HN crowd already knew this even though its not common knowledge. Are readers of HN unusually curious people? I think so.

Regardless, there are much much worse things in processed foods than sawdust.

It doesn't suprise me that Walmart "100% cheese" is actually 7.8% sawdust. I bet Walmart brand honey is also very impure, regardless what the label says.

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