BWW Cooks: The Great Parmesan Scandal of 2016

Okay, I hear you've thrown out all of your grated Parmesan cheese because you've heard about the wood problem. Now that you're admitting, at least to yourself, that you haven't always grated or shredded your Parmesan cheese fresh from that huge wedge you keep in the back, let's look at why you haven't - all right, the answers are cost and convenience - and whether you have to grate freshly every time for the rest of your life. But mostly, let's look at pre-grated Parmesan and the wood problem.

It's been all over the news for the past couple of months: pre-grated Parmesan is full of wood. Eating wood isn't good for you, so throw out the Parmesan. Right?

Well, not exactly. Your Parmesan cheese was, according to the jar or shaker label, with added cellulose. Now, cellulose is found in wood, yes. It's found in every plant. You - well, at least I - eat loads of cellulose every day, in salad, in vegetables raw or cooked, in every stalk of asparagus and leaf of kale you bite into. The cellulose in wood is exactly identical to the cellulose in all other plants, including things you like eating. Cellulose is harmless - it's fiber, the stuff we keep being told we need to eat. Wood cellulose is fine. Do not eat wood shavings, though apple, hickory, pecan, and certain other shavings are desirable for grilling and smoking. Those aren't pure cellulose; they're wood. Even more, never drink wood - methyl - alcohol, which, unlike grain - ethyl - alcohol, is poisonous. The cellulose from wood is as edible as the cellulose in broccoli, but the alcohol from wood, unlike the alcohol from corn or potatoes, is absolutely unsuited to human consumption. (Which reminds me, there's a threat of single malt Scotch shortages. Scotch, unlike wood alcohol, is absolutely suited to human consumption.)

So the problem isn't that there's wood in pre-grated Parmesan. It's that there's too much edible cellulose in your pre-grated Parmesan. A little cellulose does prevent the cheese from clumping, allegedly - lord knows I have still had to smash up clumps in pre-grated Parmesan. But there's a limit as to how much stuff you can jam into your jar of grated Parmesan cheese before you can't sell it as 100% Parmesan cheese on the shelf. The Food and Drug Administration even regulates the treatment of milk that's going to become Parmesan cheese. The acceptable level, according to the FDA, is two to four percent cellulose in any given quantity of cheese. The problem is that, from pre-grated cheeses tested, there's a lot more cellulose in them at the moment than that acceptable level. It won't hurt you... except in the pocketbook. When you're paying for a somewhat expensive cheese, especially when it's also been given the cost of a convenience factor, you want what you've paid for.

This all started because Pennsylvania's Castle Cheese Company, which produces grated Parmesan for re-sale under various labels, was discovered by the FDA to be pumping up its "Parmesan" with extra cellulose and with cheaper Cheddar cheese rather than selling "real" 100% Parmesan with two to four percent maximum content of cellulose. Their Parmesan and Romano were considered to be imitation, with Swiss and Cheddar both substituting for the represented cheeses in large percentage. Some of their products contained none of the purported cheeses at all, just grated scraps of other, cheaper cheeses. Though the substance sold wasn't harmful, prosecutors cited them as misleading and, due to substances violating regulatory standards, adulterated. Apparently they're not the only place doing it. Target's grated cheese, upon testing, was considered by testers to contain no Parmesan at all.

WalMart and Jewel-Osco were two major brands with major adulteration, containing over seven percent cellulose in the jars tested. (A lawsuit against WalMart is alleging that other jars tested contained as much as ten percent.) There's a current estimate that as much as twenty percent of Italian cheese sold in the United States, 93 million pounds, a year is inauthentic, mostly sold in a desire to squeeze more profit out of cheese sales. (Cellulose levels may vary from jar to jar, depending on blending, but the presence of other cheeses in alleged grated Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago is inexplicable other than as fraudulent cost-cutting.)

What can you do? Obviously, buying wedges of cheese and grating them yourself assures purity. If you're looking for convenience, store-shredded cheese is an option. Certain name brands' refrigerated shredded cheeses, as with Kraft and Sargento, can avoid the dry cheese-product cellulose issue, though some cellulose is used in refrigerated shredded cheese packaging as well. At least these brands, to date, have been the cheese they claim to be. Knowing the producer and its standards is one form of insurance. One of the unfortunate byproducts of this story is the disclosure that in some products, store brands have not been assured to be the same quality as the major national brands. BelGioioso Parmesan, made in Wisconsin, is available pre-grated and is widely considered excellent Parmesan by cheese experts.

Foodies and celebrity chefs will tell you that fresh Parmesan makes all the difference in the world, and they're right. Sliced Parmesan is delicious eaten directly from the wedge. Shredded fresh Parmesan is the only thing that works in a true Caesar salad, and it is vital to any decent Alfredo sauce. (Commercial jarred Alfredo sauce is one of the most obnoxious things on the planet, while freshly made fettucine Alfredo, with fresh Parmesan in it, is one of the most exquisite things ever created by man.) But given cost and convenience, and children's and teens' appetites, parents need to consider pre-grated cheese, and those who only use a sprinkle intermittently on a plate of spaghetti may watch wedges of fresh Parmesan go to waste. There's an answer for that problem, however, if you make your own soup, as dried Parmesan bits and rinds are a perfect, umami addition to soups.

If you're using a dry pre-grated Parmesan of the Kraft variety, if you're comfortable with the cellulose levels in it, you can make your cheese taste better. Don't put it on salads or other relatively dry dishes - use fresher shredded Parmesan for those. Save your dry grated Parmesan for high-moisture and high-fat dishes, both of which will revive the flavor of the cheese. Also, if you still buy the cardboard containers with the dial lids, don't store open canisters in the refrigerator with high-odor foods, as the dry grated Parmesan will absorb the flavors and odors. If you use it only occasionally, don't go for the apparent better value of the large jar or canister. Buy the smaller one, as you might actually use the entire container before it becomes unpleasant. If it's turned a dark color, it's aged. It's not spoiled, but save it for that soup. The drying itself has already affected flavor - if you can eat an alleged Parmesan cheese made up of stale cheese ends of other cheeses with almost no to no actual Parmesan in it and not notice that the flavor isn't Parmesan, then either your taste buds are dead, or, more likely here, the dessication has ruined the flavor to the degree of being unidentifiable. That's what companies pulling this trick rely on.

The biggest thing is, don't kick yourself for that jar of not-exactly-Parmesan you bought at the supermarket a few months back. It won't hurt you, and there's still use to get out of it. But the Parmesan Scandal has taught us to shop carefully and to know our products and ingredients. And even when it says "100%" on the label, read the ingredients panel. Although some of the Parmesan lawsuits may change labeling, right now, 100% Parmesan grated cheese is allowed to contain a minor amount of edible cellulose, and that cellulose has been listed on ingredients panels.

In Parmesan cheese as so many other things, buyer beware.

Photo credit: Freeimages.com

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