> according to the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium (the official trade group for the cheese) the amount of fraud is almost as big as product sales: Authentic Parmigiano Reggiano sales are around $2.44 billion while fraudulent cheese is a $2.08 billion market.
I wonder what they consider fraud. Is it that anything which says "parmesan cheese" on it without being official Parmigiano Reggiano is considered fraud? That is to say, the Kraft Parmesan they mentioned earlier would count as cheese fraud (I don't think it is, since as they say nobody is confused about what they're getting).
Or, do they literally mean there is as much cheese sold under the false pretense of being Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, with fake stamps and serial numbers, and so on?
> the FDA investigated a cheese factory in Pennsylvania and found that the cheese it was selling as “100% grated parmesan” was actually cut with fillers like wood pulp and contained exactly 0% real Parmesan cheese, using instead cheaper varieties like Swiss and cheddar. That particular producer was busted and heavily fined due to a tip-off from a former employee, but similar practices are still widespread.
> According to Nicola Bertinelli, President of the Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium, which works to promote authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano and fight counterfeit versions, the estimated turnover of fake parmesan worldwide is over 2 billion dollars annually — more than 15 times the amount of genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano exported each year
You won't find much fake Parmigiano here in Italy, which is their largest market (IMO the amount of fake Parmigiano in Italy is so insignificant that we can count it as zero).
There are other varieties, like for example Grana Padano, which are legit alternatives, but don't pretend to be Parmigiano Reggiano.
It would be like trying to sell a fake Ferrari here or a fake Tullamore D.E.W. in Ireland.
That sounds like the former, to be honest. What I meant was, is there a black market of the big wheels of fake parmesan, with forged serial numbers, claiming to be approved by whatever body controls the name Parmigiano Reggiano. A plastic bag of grated cheese that says "100% grated parmesan" feels like it's not trying to claim to be real Parmigiano Reggiano. I can see why a Consortium would want to impose a strict definition in order to protect their product.
The problem is that it's a real black market, the cheese is stolen and sold on the black market without any assurance that it was handled or aged in the correct way, just as you would imagine in a black market.
So even if the source material is legit, the final product being sold is probably not.
And the illegal profits are hard to quantify, because it's a black market after all.
> there is a thriving black market, as an estimated $7 million in Italian Parmesan cheese has been stolen in just the last two years. Parmesan cheese has proven to be an ideal target for culinary criminals. In order to be certified Parmiggiano Reggiano, the cheese must age for at least a year.
Label fraud aside, I really don't understand the vitriol that gets directed against grated cheese being sold with cellulose. It's only there to make the cheese shake out better (which it does well, you can buy grated cheese without cellulose to compare it to) And besides, there's nothing wrong with cellulose in the first place. You eat loads of cellulose every time you eat lettuce. Sure they get it from trees, but so what? I really don't see what the big deal is, assuming the labels are accurate. The fraud is a serious matter, but the "wood pulp" is inoffensive.
It's not that the cellulose is harmful, but that it might be used as filler in quantities far in excess of what is necessary for preventing caking. Calling it "wood pulp" is pointless scaremongering, I agree.
Cellulose on pregrated cheese is also supposed to impair melting, but I've always questioned how strong this effect might be. I've used grated cheese that melts wonderfully and grated cheese that might as well be plastic, and that's generally been correlated with the price of the cheese. Maybe cheaper cheese has more cellulose, but in my experience it's also drier and more rubbery, and melting is influenced by moisture content.
It seems to be fashionable to see a corporate conspiracy in everything.
From there, it's just a few more steps before people think that Bill Gates is using the tracking chips in the Parmesan to track people at all times, cackling in his secret underground lair.
If it’s no big deal why don’t they put “wood pulp” on the packaging? The fact it saves them money is too convenient by half and if they want to sell it they should be forced to disclose how they’re making it shake easier.
When they're following the law, which is most of the time, they put "cellulose" in the ingredients list on the package. This sort of product is usually not mislabeled. In that case it wasn't, and the company was rightly busted for it.
It isn't called "wood pulp" in the ingredient list because it isn't wood pulp, it's cellulose powder derived from wood pulp (or cotton.) Listing cellulose as "wood pulp" would be like listing gelatin as "pig".
In a lot of cases these same industries co-wrote the law so it gets a bit circular to cite the law as justification. But thanks for the longer explanation. I still feel they should be required to put what it’s derived from. Listing gelatin as “gelatin derived from pig” would be more helpful to make informed consumer choices.
If the label says 100% parmesean but the contents is 0% parmesean, I have 0% faith that the included wood pulp is safe for consumption. Lettuce is regulated; sawdust filler in fraudulent product (from the local PT lumber mill, perhaps?) is not.
From my memory of reading Real Food, Fake Food, they don't care about the term "parmesan"--that term has been rendered generic, much like "champagne" in the US. But "Parmigiano Reggiano" is a protected term with a PDO ("protected designation of origin"). That's the one they care about.
I wonder what they consider fraud. Is it that anything which says "parmesan cheese" on it without being official Parmigiano Reggiano is considered fraud? That is to say, the Kraft Parmesan they mentioned earlier would count as cheese fraud (I don't think it is, since as they say nobody is confused about what they're getting).
Or, do they literally mean there is as much cheese sold under the false pretense of being Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, with fake stamps and serial numbers, and so on?
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