Guest Columns

Perspective:
Cheese Technology

Addressing public resistance to the use of cellulose in cheese

Dr. Mali Reddy

Dr. Mali Reddy serves as president of the American Dairy and Food Consulting Laboratories and International Media and Cultures (IMAC Inc.), Denver, Colorado. He holds several degrees including M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University in food technology and microbiology. He is a guest columnist for this week’s issue of Cheese Market News®.

Cellulose as an anti-caking agent in shredded and grated cheese has recently come under fire. In the media, there have been several accounts of “wood” in cheese, giving the industry a black eye.

What exactly is cellulose — is it wood? Technically, it is. Cellulose is the structural component of plants and is mainly obtained from wood pulp; humans can’t digest it and thus it doesn’t have nutritive value. Food-grade cellulose is approved by FDA to be used in foods, but not to exceed a specific amount.

According to the recent Bloomberg Business report and study that started the maelstrom, Essential Everyday 100-percent Grated Parmesan Cheese from Jewel-Osco had 8.8 percent cellulose, and Great Value 100-percent Grated Parmesan Cheese from Wal-Mart had 7.8 percent cellulose.

And quality is an issue. In the case of shredded Mozzarella, both part skim as well as whole milk, any usage of cellulose as an anti-caking agent over 1.5 percent alters the rheological properties and melt such as overall appearance, browning, blistering and tenderness, etc.

Now the lawsuits have begun. Wal-Mart is being sued by a customer who alleges the chain is defrauding customers with its Great Value brand 100-percent Grated Parmesan Cheese. According to lawsuit filings, tests found that the cheese contained as much as 10 percent cellulose. Similar suits have been filed against Kraft Heinz. Regardless of lawsuits, serious questions have been raised by consumers on why the “wood pulp” was allowed to be added to the cheese in the first place.

In response, anti-caking agent manufacturers are getting several calls and requests for anti-caking agents without cellulose. Some of the leading cheese manufacturers are looking at stopping the use of cellulose to eliminate objections from customers. Some are thinking of even deliberately declaring on their label in bold letters stating that their shredded cheese does not have any cellulose.

The food industry now has no other choice but to think about switching to other alternatives with both aesthetic and nutritive appeal.

This forces the industry to go for either starch based (corn and potato) or approved chemical-based anti-caking agents.

There are drawbacks, however. Like cellulose, dry blended potato starch anti-caking agents (moisture 10 to 18 percent) also exhibit severe browning defects once it exceeds over 1.5 percent usage in Mozzarella. In addition, there are some reports that potato starch causes allergic reactions in some people and thus their physicians are recommending them not to eat cheese that has potato starch, even if it is present in small amounts in the anti-caking agent used. I am sure if you look hard and investigate you will find similar issues with other starches as well. In addition, some customers are requesting only non-GMO starches.

To overcome all these issues, the anti-caking agent used should not have any cellulose, should not have any GMO starch and finally, the non-GMO starch used should be hypo-allerginized (even though starch is not in the eight major allergens).

In my opinion, anti-caking agents should be manufactured under strict sanitary conditions, just like making cheese, since it is finally ending up in the cheese. Safety parameters should be built to eliminate or hypo-allerginize any possible residual allergens and also the revival of any subdued pathogens. If we do not follow and implement safety procedures and precautions we will end up in the public eye again, just as we are with objections on cellulose. We have to realize that the internet is powerful, and consumers are heavily relying on it to make decisions.

The cheese converting or shredding plants also should pay particular attention to the technology and production of such products and ask probing intelligent questions to safeguard their finished products rather than purely going on price only. Any anti-caking agent used in cheese which is significantly cheaper than the cost of cheese, when used at abnormally higher levels, can be construed as a bulking agent by FDA. As Newton put it, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Let us make the American dairy and cheese industry great and whole, with positive publicity and consumer confidence.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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