Many years back, when I was a teen, there was great concern expressed about the lack of fiber in our diets. To help solve that problem one baking company added sawdust, cellulose, to their white bread (back when the Food and Drug Administration had some real authority) and when that was discovered great furor broke out and that bakery almost went bankrupt over that.

The "Parmesan" cheese made and sold in the USA probably is not real anyway, but to adulterate it is simply wrong.

kimmq is kimmsr

'All natural' and 'Organic' I'm sure.

We better get the FewdBabe on this right away so she can scaremonger the uneducated masses into calling for a ban of this evil cellulose stuff. Don't you know that kitchen sponges are made from cellulose? What wants to eat sponges?

Should we should also insist on chitin-free mushrooms, too? That stuff is in insects and spiders!

Food grade cellulose (made from wood pulp usually) is one way of preventing clumping in grated or powdered cheeses. The alternatives are various modified or unmodified food starches,

I'm annoyed that they had more than claimed, but not aghast at its precense. I seldom buy powdered cheese.

BTW, organic lettuce is mostly cellulose and water. Does it make it bad to eat?

ADDING: NPR link

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/10/329767647/from-mcdonalds-to-organic-valley-youre-probably-eating-wood-pulp 

" there are additional challenges to using nonwood plants. For instance,
lots of customers, Bodner says, are demanding non-genetically modified
products. If the cellulose industry were to use corn stalks, leaves and
husks or sugar beets, it would be a challenge to keep the supply chain
free of genetically modified crop residue."

Those that feel it is fine for food manufacturers to adulterate the foods they eat can go ahead and purchase those foods. Those of us that believe food manufacturers should not adulterate the foods we eat should have the choice to not purchase those foods and the only way to know is with proper labeling.

kimmq is kimmsr

kimmq is kimmsr:

By using the word "sawdust" to describe the cellulose that's added to many food products, along with the fact that you're posting about cheese in a gardening forum, it seems quite clear that you fail to understand some very basic biology and chemistry.

Here's a video on polysaccharides that may help.

Virtually any containerized food product is going to be "adulterated" in several ways. For flavor, texture, mouth feel, and shelf life. You shouldn't be eating any of them. Sawdust doesn't concern me a bit. "Natural Flavors" on the other hand I avoid like the plague. I don't even know what they are and the food industry is not required to tell me. Forget about labeling for GMO, I just want labeling of the actual ingredients.

Of course you're right. Your health is not the concern of the food industry. They will sell whatever people will buy. It's up to you to decide what's OK to put in your mouth.

There have been several stories about parmesan cheese sold in the USA and every one referred to the cellulose added as sawdust. The parmesan cheeses sold by one company had nothing remotely resembling parmesan in it.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703834804576300991196803916

kimmq is kimmsr