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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne 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 countrys 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 wasnt 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.
German brewers protect their reputations with Reinheitsgebot, a series of purity laws first drawn up 500 years ago, and Champagne makers prohibit most vineyards outside their turf from using the name. Now the full force of the U.S. government has been brought to bear defending the authenticity of grated hard Italian cheeses. Which is good news for Neil Schuman.
For years, Schuman has been a one-man Reinheitsgebot, insisting that the fragrant granules Americans sprinkle on their pizza and penne ought to be the real thing; if not, the label should say so.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/the-parmesan-cheese-you-sprinkle-on-your-penne-could-be-wood
EmperorHasNoClothes
(4,797 posts)That's a pretty cheesy pun.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,505 posts).
Beartracks
(12,821 posts)But it was still a pretty gouda joke.
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flamin lib
(14,559 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,365 posts)nichomachus
(12,754 posts)We need to Make America Grate Again.
flamin lib
(14,559 posts)Beartracks
(12,821 posts)meow2u3
(24,773 posts)nichomachus
(12,754 posts)lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)virgogal
(10,178 posts)JI7
(89,264 posts)Mariana
(14,860 posts)The label should be accurate, even if the product is delicious. Don't you agree?
kentauros
(29,414 posts)tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)MineralMan
(146,331 posts)It never was. Ick! Ack! Ugh! Grate your own and you'll know the difference immediately. Or even buy the coarsely shredded stuff in the plastic containers. The shaker box should never come near anything called food. Blech!
Vinca
(50,304 posts)mhatrw
(10,786 posts)surrealAmerican
(11,364 posts)... he dyed too.
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)trueblue2007
(17,238 posts)YES WE NEED REGULATION!!! DO you think i want stinking wood or other CRAP in my Parmesan cheese. NOT on your bloody life.
Here is what I REALLY THINK: GOP politicians, KEEP REGULATIONS IN PLACE. You keep your stinkin' hands off our food!!!
Keep regulation in place so the food i eat won't make me sick or cause me to die.