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
