The day they took the Cheese out of Cheez Whiz

[The Straight Story]

Dean Southworth was enjoying a quiet retirement in Florida after 38 years as a food scientist for Kraft. He and his wife, Betty, were living in a modest house in the palm-lined island town of Fort Myers Beach, smack between the inlet that runs to Estero Bay, with its luscious sunrises, and the Gulf of Mexico, with its magnificent sunsets. Southworth, finally, had the time to take in both. During his years at Kraft, he had spent long days trying to develop new products, trying to stay ahead of the competition. Now, he did things like take long walks and help run the local Kiwanis Club.

He hadn’t abandoned his previous life completely, though. Whenever he got the urge, which was quite often, he would enjoy the fruits of one of his finest inventions: the spread known as Cheez Whiz.

...

So it was with considerable alarm that he turned to his wife one evening in 2001, having just sampled a jar of Cheez Whiz he’d picked up at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket. “I said, ‘Holy God, it tastes like axle grease.’ I looked at the label and I said, ‘What the hell did they do?’ I called up Kraft, using the 800 number for consumer complaints, and I told them, ‘You are putting out a goddamn axle grease!’ ”

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/03/09/michael-moss-the-day-they-took-the-cheese-out-of-cheez-whiz/

[hlthe2b]

1. I used to eat this as a young child.... But, I noticed the same about 10 years ago....UGGH

No problem turning my back on that and nearly other highly processed food. Yuck.

[uselessobot]

2. The problem is our governments definitions of what can be legally called cheese

or anything else that one can legally sell as food in America. The corporations have been able to use their political power to get what they want once again.

IMHO products like this should be illegal to sell for human or animal consumption but I don’t get to make that call so if processed chemical laden ‘food’ is your thing well…….Bon Appetite!

[malaise]

3. We hate processed cheese in any form

The fuggers are killing people with impunity

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. I'm reading the book now,

and it's pretty damn upsetting.

[Renew Deal]

5. This was a great article

Very informative

[Major Nikon]

6. Was anyone actually under the impression that cheese was health food?

Honestly I don't really understand the aversion that some people have to processed cheese products. It's not as if actual cheese is all that much different.

Here are the nutrition facts for cheddar cheese and Cheez Whiz:

Cheddar cheese:

Serving size - 28g
Calories - 113
Calories from fat - 82
Total fat - 9g
Saturated fat 6g

Cheez Whiz:

Serving size - 28g
Calories - 77
Calories from fat - 53
Total fat - 6g
Saturated fat 4g

[Chan790]

7. No, but I was under the impression that cheese was a clearly and well-defined product.

Conflating the current formula of Cheez Whiz with cheese is like saying "Aw fuck it, Cool Whip is really just whipped cream in a tub."

[Major Nikon]

8. It hasn't been conflated in my lifetime

The government regulates what can and can't be called cheese and has for decades. Cheez whiz is made from mostly milk products, the same as real cheese. Cool Whip contains almost no dairy.

If the ingredients in Cheez Whiz scares anyone, they probably don't want to know where rennet comes from.

[Chan790]

9. Knowing where rennet comes from...

I'd prefer I didn't know where rennet comes from.

My grandparents had a goat and sheep dairy. I've made cheese.

[Hekate]

10. I'd live on cheese if it were feasible. It is an ancient food--some more ancient than others!

Processed cheese is what I call a food-like product, and I think people who ingest it have no palate worth the name.

Not all cheese is created equal, to be sure. I once bought some fat-free "cheese" which I had to return to Trader Joe's as inedible. That, also, fell into the category of being a food-like product.

Alas, living on cheese is not feasible, but the best cheeses are divine spread on a baguette or melted on a slice of sourdough. My idea of heaven would be traveling through the French and English countrysides sampling regional artisanal cheddars and bleus and ...

BTW, there are some mitigations to your health concerns, to wit:

Health and Nutrition
In general, cheese supplies a great deal of calcium, protein, phosphorus and fat. A 30-gram (1.1 oz) serving of Cheddar cheese contains about 7 grams (0.25 oz) of protein and 200 milligrams of calcium. Nutritionally, cheese is essentially concentrated milk: it takes about 200 grams (7.1 oz) of milk to provide that much protein, and 150 grams (5.3 oz) to equal the calcium.

Dental health
Some studies claim that cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss and American cheeses can help to prevent tooth decay. Several mechanisms for this protection have been proposed:
The calcium, protein, and phosphorus in cheese may act to protect tooth enamel.
Cheese increases saliva flow, washing away acids and sugars.

Effect on sleep
A study by the British Cheese Board in 2005 to determine the effect of cheese upon sleep and dreaming discovered that, contrary to the idea that cheese commonly causes nightmares, the effect of cheese upon sleep was positive. The majority of the two hundred people tested over a fortnight claimed beneficial results from consuming cheeses before going to bed, the cheese promoting good sleep. Six cheeses were tested and the findings were that the dreams produced were specific to the type of cheese. Although the apparent effects were in some cases described as colorful and vivid, or cryptic, none of the cheeses tested were found to induce nightmares. However, the six cheeses were all British. The results might be entirely different if a wider range of cheeses were tested. Cheese contains tryptophan, an amino acid that has been found to relieve stress and induce sleep.

Lactose
Cheese is often avoided by those who are lactose intolerant, but ripened cheeses like Cheddar contain only about 5% of the lactose found in whole milk, and aged cheeses contain almost none. Nevertheless, people with severe lactose intolerance should avoid eating dairy cheese. As a natural product, the same kind of cheese may contain different amounts of lactose on different occasions, causing unexpected painful reactions. (Which would explain why my lactose-intolerant husband does very well with aged cheese.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese

[RedCappedBandit]

11. I mean, isn't cheese 'processed' by definition, anyways?

[Hekate]

12. Not in the way that is meant by Velveeta and Cheeze Whiz

The recipe for cheese for seven thousand or so years has been milk, a curdling agent, rennet, and salt. Mold is optional.

The milk can be from nearly any mammal kept by farmers and herders: cow, ewe, water buffalo, goat. Hard cheese keeps well; salt also acts as a preservative. Hard cheddar is generally tolerated by lactose-intolerant people.

Notice the simplicity of ingredients and lack of any unpronounceable chemicals in this recipe.

[RedCappedBandit]

13. Processed is just a meaningless term, when it comes to food, imo.

I'm certainly not saying cheez whiz is a valid cheese replacement. I personally think it is quite disgusting. But people always throw the term 'processed' around with this stigma as if anything that is processed at all is inherently 'bad'. Makes no sense.

The recipe for cheese clearly involves a certain level of processing, for instance. 'Unpronounceable chemicals' (like.. vitamins?) are irrelevant.

[Major Nikon]

14. I agree

Unless someone is living exclusively on raw meat, fruits and vegetables they are eating processed food.

Processed cheese is a valid cheese replacement. Nutritionally it's no better or worse. Processed cheese melts easily without separating, which can't be said for most cheeses. I love real cheese. I've made it myself many times. I keep several varieties on hand at any given time. However I'm not under any illusion that it's nutritionally better than processed cheese.

[Major Nikon]

16. It's just processed a different way

Just because cheese has been made pretty much the same way for thousands of years doesn't mean much. The biggest difference in processing is an enzyme is used to separate the milk solids from the milk liquids in the case of cheese. With processed cheese they are using milk solids which have already been separated by other means.

The scary sounding ingredients are FDA approved and give the product improved performance over regular cheese which is why it's more versatile.

[Hekate]

17. Sorry, you are making me laugh

I'm genuinely amused, not trying to be mean. Surely you know the common connotations of the words "processed food"? Therein lies my thesis re: real cheese vs. cheese-like substances.

Ta.

[Major Nikon]

18. You can assign whatever name or connotation you want to the term

I'm not really sure what common public perception has to do with any nutritional benefit of "processed" cheese vs real cheese. In the absence of such differences it really just comes down to personal preference and has no more value than arguing whether Bieber is better than Hendrix.

[Arkana]

15. There was cheese in Cheez Whiz?

When was this?