The Parmesan cheese you sprinkle on your pasta could be wood

The cheese police are on the case.
Acting on a tip, agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration paid a surprise visit to a cheese factory in rural Pennsylvania on a cold November day in 2012.
They found what they were looking for: evidence that Castle Cheese Inc. was doctoring its 100 percent real parmesan with cut-rate substitutes and such fillers as wood pulp and distributing it to some of the country’s biggest grocery chains.

One might be tempted to think of this as a ripped-from-the-headlines episode of “NYPD Bleu,” except that the FDA wasn’t playing. Some grated Parmesan suppliers have been mislabeling products by filling them with too much cellulose, a common anti-clumping agent made from wood pulp, or using cheaper cheddar, instead of real Romano. Someone had to pay. Castle President Michelle Myrter is scheduled to plead guilty this month to criminal charges. She faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

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The Parmesan cheese you sprinkle on your pasta could be wood | The News Tribune

Oh the irony...throw her ass in the clink and that will be the last she'll taste of "wood" for a while.

I say give her the shaft.

Top Cat said:

The Parmesan cheese you sprinkle on your pasta could be wood | The News Tribune

Oh the irony...throw her ass in the clink and that will be the last she'll taste of "wood" for a while.

I say give her the shaft.

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This a subject (Italian cheese) that is near and dear to my heart.

The domestic stuff is virtually always junk, at least from the large producers. There might be some decent artisanal stuff, but I haven't sought it out.

I buy imported only, and from Italian delis we've done business with for generations. Could the guys in Italy be ripping us off. Of course. But the small family business we buy from have been using the same suppliers and distributors for generations, too; they know what it looks, feels, smells, and tastes like - and so do we. If their cheese changed in quality (taste, texture, etc), they'd know.

So I continue my relationship with these guys, and buy with reasonable confidence. And it smells & tastes right!

Chomsky said:

This a subject (Italian cheese) that is near and dear to my heart.

The domestic stuff is virtually always junk, at least from the large producers. There might be some decent artisanal stuff, but I haven't sought it out.

I buy imported only, and from Italian delis we've done business with for generations. Could the guys in Italy be ripping us off. Of course. But the small family business we buy from have been using the same suppliers and distributors for generations, too; they know what it looks, feels, smells, and tastes like - and so do we. If their cheese changed in quality (taste, texture, etc), they'd know.

So I continue my relationship with these guys, and buy with reasonable confidence. And it smells & tastes right!

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If you buy your Parmesan (or Romano or Locatelli, etc) from the wheel and grate it yourself, then you can be assured you're getting the real thing.

The problem is when you buy it pre-grated. Most sellers of grated and shredded cheese add cellulose (wood fiber) to keep the grated cheese from clumping together.

Don't google Italian olive oil mafia scam....

sangha said:

If you buy your Parmesan (or Romano or Locatelli, etc) from the wheel and grate it yourself, then you can be assured you're getting the real thing.

The problem is when you buy it pre-grated. Most sellers of grated and shredded cheese add cellulose (wood fiber) to keep the grated cheese from clumping together.

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Every year when I go back to NY I pick up a couple of pounds of Locatelli and keep it in the freezer. I'll never understand how people can use that stuff that comes from a box.

Chomsky said:

I buy imported only, and from Italian delis we've done business with for generations. Could the guys in Italy be ripping us off. Of course.

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yeah, they've ripped us off in Olive Oil.

sangha said:

If you buy your Parmesan (or Romano or Locatelli, etc) from the wheel and grate it yourself, then you can be assured you're getting the real thing.

The problem is when you buy it pre-grated. Most sellers of grated and shredded cheese add cellulose (wood fiber) to keep the grated cheese from clumping together.

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Yeah, agreed.

I buy it where they cut it from the wheel, and never considered buying it pre-grated because it's always best grated right at the table, after first being brought to room temperature.

The only exception is when we're making a pot of sauce, and then I'll have my deli grate it for us. We usually use Grana Padano in our sauce, though. (very similar to a richer Parm).

But if you like good imported hard aged pungent Parm, I've got a cheese for you! It's called 'Canestrato', is very hard and pungent, and has a nice additional bitter and sour component that Parm lacks. But my description falls short, because it's really very good! It's like Parm on steroids! It's always two years old or more, and while not popular outside of Southern Italian circles, you can find it in Sicilian and Calabrese or Barese owned delis. Many of the delis around here are just those regionalities, often Sicilian. It's a Sicilian cheese.

It's very dark, hard, and aged, so you have to trim the dark rind off all the sides of the sliver, except the end you hold in your hand when grating it. You'll never go back to Parm or Romano again, after you taste this stuff!

Here's a pic:

Chomsky said:

Yeah, agreed.

I buy it where they cut it from the wheel, and never considered buying it pre-grated because it's always best grated right at the table, after first being brought to room temperature.

The only exception is when we're making a pot of sauce, and then I'll have my deli grate it for us. We usually use Grana Padano in our sauce, though. (very similar to a richer Parm).

But if you like good imported hard aged pungent Parm, I've got a cheese for you! It's called 'Canestrato', is very hard and pungent, and has a nice additional bitter and sour component that Parm lacks. But my description falls short, because it's really very good! It's like Parm on steroids! It's always two years old or more, and while not popular outside of Southern Italian circles, you can find it in Sicilian and Calabrese or Barese owned delis. Many of the delis around here are just those regionalities, often Sicilian. It's a Sicilian cheese.

It's very dark, hard, and aged, so you have to trim the dark rind off all the sides of the sliver, except the end you hold in your hand when grating it. You'll never go back to Parm or Romano again, after you taste this stuff!

Here's a pic:

View attachment 67197246

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the name is humorous

lb_on_teh_cb said:

yeah, they've ripped us off in Olive Oil.

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I'm going to have to watch this video I've heard so much about.

I'm not sure what distributors and retailers this involves, but I suspect it happened at high levels and large operations.

I think this would be harder to pull this off in the small family owned places, at least the ones I frequent, because some of these guys not only know what the stuff should look and taste like, but have relationships with these individuals and families back in Italy. My most used guy came from Sicily 35 years ago as a young man, but still has family and contacts back there and is using those family contacts for his products.

So in the small delis, I would think the proprietors would have to be in on it too.

I'm going to look for this video. I believe it was Sixty Minutes, right?

I buy belgioso. It's not very expensive, and it's pretty good. And I totally agree, there is a WORLD of difference between the blocks and the pregrated stuff.

Chomsky said:

I'm going to have to watch this video I've heard so much about.

I'm not sure what distributors and retailers this involves, but I suspect it happened at high levels and large operations.

I think this would be harder to pull this off in the small family owned places, at least the ones I frequent, because some of these guys not only know what the stuff should look and taste like, but have relationships with these individuals and families back in Italy. My most used guy came from Sicily 35 years ago as a young man, but still has family and contacts back there and is using those family contacts for his products.

So in the small delis, I would think the proprietors would have to be in on it too.

I'm going to look for this video. I believe it was Sixty Minutes, right?

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i havent seen it but i've heard about it from many sources. to be fair it wasnt just the Italians but also Spain iirc and even Australia - probably any country that had significant olive oil production. one source said that they were mixing in lots of canola oil (usually hexane extracted and not very healthy) in with the olive oil.

lb_on_teh_cb said:

the name is humorous

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Yeah, didn't want to bend everyone sideways, but I usually see it spelled "NCanestrato" in the places where they still commonly speak Sicilian, similar to the 'N' in "NDuja sausage".

So it's really pronounced "In Can e Strat oe", with the old timers dropping the 'n' and the 'o'.

Top Cat said:

The Parmesan cheese you sprinkle on your pasta could be wood | The News Tribune

Oh the irony...throw her ass in the clink and that will be the last she'll taste of "wood" for a while.

I say give her the shaft.

Click to expand...

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need regulatory and policy agencies like the FDA to ensure that our food is safe. Granted, these such federal agencies may not be well liked and sometimes they may go a little overboard in their policing and/or policy making, but when stuff like this happens aren't you glad they exist?

Chomsky said:

This a subject (Italian cheese) that is near and dear to my heart.

The domestic stuff is virtually always junk, at least from the large producers. There might be some decent artisanal stuff, but I haven't sought it out.

I buy imported only, and from Italian delis we've done business with for generations. Could the guys in Italy be ripping us off. Of course. But the small family business we buy from have been using the same suppliers and distributors for generations, too; they know what it looks, feels, smells, and tastes like - and so do we. If their cheese changed in quality (taste, texture, etc), they'd know.

So I continue my relationship with these guys, and buy with reasonable confidence. And it smells & tastes right!

Click to expand...

I don't have to worry about that. I grate my own parmesan.

Objective Voice said:

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need regulatory and policy agencies like the FDA to ensure that our food is safe. Granted, these such federal agencies may not be well liked and sometimes they may go a little overboard in their policing and/or policy making, but when stuff like this happens aren't you glad they exist?

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FDA deserves a raise for this one.