I stand to be corrected on this but I think the cellulose we’re looking at here is micro-crystalline alpha cellulose, it could be from wood, wheat, pea hulls, just about anything, it’s not specific to “wood”. Most of the time it’s used as an anti-caking agent just like many of us who shred our own cheese might use a little flour on the cheese to keep it from clumping. The fact still remains though that if it’s there, it has to be on the product label. I don’t know if there are exceptions to “processing aides” in the labeling of cheese, if the cellulose is added as a processing aide (to prevent clumping) it might not need to be labeled. A quick trip through the CFRs would tell the story. By the way, we had the same hype when high fiber bread was all the rage since it was made with micro-crystalline alpha cellulose too and from that point on it was said that it was made with saw dust when actually, the MCAC was made from field pea hulls (not the pods, that thin hull covering each pea). If anyone is interested, you can still buy it today, it’s sold under the name “Snow White Pea Fiber”
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Is cellulose the agent that causes the pre shredded inexpensive cheese to burn, compared to the shredded cheese that I get from Grande’?
Tony;
No, cellulose is the product that is left over after essentially everything has been removed, there is no sugar or sufficient protein present for to participate in the browning reaction, think of cellulose fiber as a purified form of bran. Aside from being a bulking agent it has a very high affinity for water/moisture hence its use as an anti clumping agent.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
When i was refilling my parm shaker today i glanced at the ingredients list, sure enough it had cellulose listed for a specific reason.
Seems to me this is only a story because they did not list it in the ingredients.
I just think it’s funny that brand has no Parmesan in it at all. I mean, I get using the pulp as a filler, an additive or anti caking agent or whatever their idea was, but to be at 0% Parmesan and claim 100%? Pretty wild.
Agreed. I’d like to know if it was 100% or just used in excess of what is allowed for the product to be declared as “Parmesan Cheese”.
I just can’t imagine that the product was made with 100% cellulose, if it was I’d say that was some pretty good food engineering on their part.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor