The FDA has got some news that can change the way you look at your pasta cheese forever.
After receiving tips from agents, the US Food and Drug Association has confirmed that though most of the grated parmesan cheese proclaim that they are '100% real', some of them are really not-and they contain wood.
One of the guilty "cheese" makers is Castle Cheese Inc. As reported by Bloomberg, the company was proven to have been fooling America through their product that has been present on grocery shelves for decades.
According to the report of the FDA, the "parmesan cheese" manufactured by Castle Cheese Inc. contains two percent or more wood pulp in every packet of shredded parmesan cheese. Some companies even produce parmesan cheese without the cheese itself. Not only that, aside from the wood pulp, the cheese they make and supply also contains swiss, mozzarella, and white cheddar.
For it is common for big manufacturers to add in a small amount of wood pulp or cellulose in the making of their parmesan cheese to act as "extenders" or bulking agent. The FDA has set the rule that the acceptable amount of the said non-cheese ingredients be only two percent of the total weight per packaging.
The FDA discovered that most of the offenders use up to 8.8 percent wood pulp, the topnotcher in the list of the delinquents is Jowel-Osco. It is followed by the cheese by Walmart's Great Value which uses 7.8 percent cellulose.
Cellulose is the main sugar content of plants. It is a polysaccharide that the human digestive system is not equipped to break down. It is the main raw material when manufacturing paper, cardboard and other plant-based products known to humans.
Though some people could easily identify high-quality, honest-to-goodness cheese from the low quality-wax tasting ones, the FDA still warned the public to always inspect their purchases-not only cheese and to not put their health at stake just to save up some bucks.
