I have some friends who believe that some cheeses contain plastic. They make two specific claims. One, they believe that some shredded cheeses contain plastic because the plastic is not always removed before the cheese is shredded. The other claim deals with individually wrapped slices of cheese. They claim that the plastic is somehow absorbed by the cheese. To me, this sounds like a load of crap. I bow before the infinite wisdom of the SDMB. What’s the straight dope?
Actually, karft et. al. the makers of 'singles" instead of cheese, probably do include plastic, or at least it tastes like plastic. It’s not real cheese, exactly. I buy my cheese in the cheese section.
First of all, I don’t think you should be eating ANY cheese, but looking beyond that…
I think your friend got a little confused. It was a news story awhile back that cheese absorbs some of the plastic chemicals from plastic wrapping. Not all plastic wrapping, just some of it. The weird thing was that the cheese wrapped in wax and then plastic absorbed MORE of it than those like the Kraft singles that are wrapped in a different plastic.
Karft! Right. Man, I gotta watch my spelling! Its because I ate too much cheese.
No. But I had to jump into this thread!
For years we’ve called the Kraft singles ‘plasticheese’, so this definitely amused me!
VB
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Must be some mighty cheap stuff. The better stuff they seal in wax.
The concept of “plastic cheese” probably arises from the fact that the enzyme used to coagulate the milk into cheese in Kraft Singles is not an animal enzyme like in “real” cheese. Because of this, it is labled as “cheese food” rather than cheese. I don’t know whether the enzyme is synthetic (plastic?) or vegetable based.
Elmer J. Fudd,
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I own a mansion and a yacht.
Here’s the story the way I heard it:
Kraft Cheese Food Product (American Cheese)
used to be called cheese. Until a couple of university students left a piece on the top of the fridge and noticed that it turned into a greasy piece of hard plastic, never moulding.
Well, that clever student ended up writing a dissertation about this, doing the chemistry and pointing out that it wasn’t actually Cheese. This document finally found it’s way into the press and they were forced to call their product ‘cheese food product’, basically acknowledging that somewhere in the begining of the process some cheese like characteristics actually existed, though by the end it was not, in fact - cheese.
How about it, anyone else aware of this or is it Urban legend.
“Wisdom is the booby prize, they give you when you’ve been unwise.”
If you buy pre-shredded cheese, it’s packaged with cellulose powder to keep it from clumping together. This affects the flavor (adversely :(), and also means it won’t melt together right if it’s on something hot like a casserole. Shred it yourself.
It is too clear, and so it is hard to see.
Smells like a UL sandwich to me. The USDA and FDA defines what foods can legally be called. Cheese is made from milk. Fake cheese, “cheese food”, etc. etc. are made from animal or vegtable fats.
This has me wondering of there are any completely synthetic foods. I mean something that came from raw materials other than animal or vegtable products.
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While in theory it’s possible for a polymer molecule to diffuse out of the wrapper and into the cheese (ObPolyFact: “reptation” is a semi-descriptive term used to describe how polymer molecules move), in practice this is not going to happen to any great extent.
Unreacted monomers, plasticizers, or other gunk trapped in the plastic is a) much more likely to wind up in the cheese and b) more likely to give the cheese an off flavor
if it does.
Different names for cheese and cheeselike substances:
Cheese is, well, cheese.
Process cheese is “a blend of cheeses which have been shredded, mixed, heated, and then molded.”
Process cheese FOOD is process cheese with other ingredients “such as nonfat dry milk or whey solids and water” and contains a lower milkfat and higher moisture content than either cheese or process cheese.
Process cheese SPREAD has even higher moisture and lower milkfat than cheese food.
If it’s vegetable rather than dairy based, it’s not “cheese” and can’t be labelled as such. I think “imitation cheese” or “artificial cheese” are permissible names, though I remember one vegetable-oil based product which went under the moniker “pasteurized process slices.” Slices of what, exactly, was unspecified.
Thanks for all the quick responses! You rule!
Kind of a tangent-
I’ve heard they call American Cheese, Canadian Cheese in Canada?? True??
God why would anyone want to tke CREDIT for this abomination upon nature!
-Frankie
“Mother Mercy, can your loins bear fruit forever?/Is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?”
-Bad Religion
I couldn’t say about that, but my health teacher back in JHS used to recommend eating the little red plastic stick that came with “cheese” and crackers over eating the “cheese”.
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synthetic foods? Yeah, flavored wax. Yummy.
Chalupas come to mind.
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