Parmesan wood pulp, instead of the "100 percent" cheese promised to the customer on the label, is more like what many products using too much of a wood pulp additive might taste like, reported
Bloomberg Business.
Many cheese companies use the anti-clumping additive cellulose -- which contains wood pulp -- in their products, noted Bloomberg, and Dean Sommer, a cheese technologist at the Center for Dairy Research, said cellulose is acceptable at levels of 2 to 4 percent of cheeses.
However, in its own independent tests Bloomberg News said it found that Essential Everyday 100 percent Grated Parmesan Cheese, from Jewel-Osco, contained 8.8 percent cellulose; and Great Value 100 percent Grated Parmesan Cheese, from Walmart, registered 7.8 percent.
Neal Schuman, chief executive officer of Arthur Schuman Inc., told the
Milwaukee Sentinel Journal in 2014 that he believed that 20 percent of the cheeses sold in the United States were "inauthentic." He accused cheese manufactures of using cellulose, along with starches and fillers to cut costs.
"That amounts to 93 million pounds of Italian hard-cheese forgeries sold each year at an estimated dollar value of $375 million," Schuman charged then. "The motivation is usually lower cost of ingredients and higher profit."
Sommer said U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules are "somewhat vague" in the use of cellulose.
"You can add the amount of anti-caking agent necessary to achieve the desired effect, but you can't add more than that," Sommer told the Sentinel Journal. "From a consumer's perspective, the product isn't going to be as acceptable if you load it up with cellulose."
USA Today said the FDA launched an investigation of Pennsylvania's Castle Cheese Inc., which claimed falsely that it produced 100 percent parmesean cheese in its products. Bloomberg News said the investigation led to the company filing for bankruptcy in 2014.