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Bloomberg: some grated parmesan sold on market has 0% parmesan, up to 8% wood-pulp

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T

The Lamp

Member
Cyan said:
No, they want that for the same reason anyone wants to trademark a name: monopoly power.
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It's multiple reasons. Lots of US beers cannot legally be called beer in Europe because it doesn't match the recipe standards for purity. European countries can be picky about what is and isn't a certain food. For better or worse.
 
Tarkus

Tarkus

Member
Parmigiano-Reggiano.jpg

+
microplane-fine-grater.jpg

+ 15 seconds. Never look back.
 
B

Big-E

Member
I knew grated cheese was a scam. Fuck these guys to high heaven with the 100% labeling. People should burn for that as it is literally theft.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
hom3land said:
I was just thinking that. We get their parmesan all the time because it has no rennet.
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Ah, I skipped the critical word. Apparently it's the grated stuff that is at issue. No clue if TJ's offers a grated version. I have bought only the wedge of it then peel as needed. (Yes peel as I haven't gotten a micro grater yet!)
 
D

Dennis

Banned
Essential Everyday 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, from Jewel-Osco, was 8.8 percent wood-pulp
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Nothing like getting 250% of your daily requirement for fiber without even knowing it!

Thanks Obama.
 
P

Pennywise83

Banned
Cyan said:
No, they want that for the same reason anyone wants to trademark a name: monopoly power.
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Monopoly power by whom, exactly? Parmisan cheese is not a brand - it identifies a specific way of producing a specific variety of cheese. You, as a firm, can produce parmisan cheese, and call it in this way, if you follow the actual procedure to make parmisan cheese. That's because parmisan cheese is parmisan cheese, not cheddar or any other kind of cheese - does it make sense to bake a cheesecake and call it carrot cake?The problem here is that many companies are just exploiting the name because it is known and renowned, and generally signal quality (without actually selling parmisan cheese) - at the same time damaging the name of the product itself.
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
Cyan said:
No, they want that for the same reason anyone wants to trademark a name: monopoly power.
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Nothing stops you of making cheese the same way, you can just not jump on an etablished name, something that makes a lot of sense to me.

Sadly, most American companies don't want to produce a similiar product in the first place but just want to use the brand power of a traditional product.
 
I

IceCold

Member
If you care about good parmesan you wouldn't buy the pre grated crap. I buy mine imported from Italy, labelled as parmigiano reggiano and it's delicious.

Same shit with feta, don't buy the pre crumbled version.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Pennywise83 said:
Monopoly power by whom, exactly? Parmisan cheese is not a brand - it identifies a specific of producing a specific variety of cheese. You, as a firm, can produce parmisan cheese and call it like that if you follow the procedure. That's because parmisan cheese is parmisan cheese, not cheddar or any other kind of cheese. The problem here is that many companies are just exploiting the name because it is known and renowned, and generally signal quality (without actually selling parmisan cheese).
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Italy wants to ban anyone not from the Parma region from calling their parmesan parmesan. That's what I'm referring to. It's a genericized name that they want to essentially trademark.
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
Cyan said:
Italy wants to ban anyone not from the Parma region from calling their parmesan parmesan. That's what I'm referring to. It's a genericized name that they want to essentially trademark.
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It isn't. Permesan is a grana cheese, the Permesan cheese is just the most famous kind of that type of cheese.
 
I

IceCold

Member
Cyan said:
Italy wants to ban anyone not from the Parma region from calling their parmesan parmesan. That's what I'm referring to. It's a genericized name that they want to essentially trademark.
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Europe does this for many products though. Port & Madeira wine, champagne, etc this is nothing new. They do it to prevent people from diluting and ruining their brand with shittier and cheaper versions of them.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
Cyan said:
Italy wants to ban anyone not from the Parma region from calling their parmesan parmesan. That's what I'm referring to. It's a genericized name that they want to essentially trademark.
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Italy and Europe in general needs to get their olive oil shit under control before they start bitching about parmesean.
 
P

Pennywise83

Banned
Cyan said:
Italy wants to ban anyone not from the Parma region from calling their parmesan parmesan. That's what I'm referring to. It's a genericized name that they want to essentially trademark.
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Oh, I got it. The problem is the Parmesan name. They want to protect a traditional food which is produced in a specific way with specific milk (Reggiana and Frisone are the cows they're using) in a specific region... Which is nothing weird, given the huge tradition Italy has in producing food. Parmesan is not a genericized name because it identifies a specific cheese. What is called Parmesan in Us rarely resemble Parmesan so what's the issue?
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
Makes one wonder why customers are defending the policy of using etablished brand names for food.
It shouldn't make a difference if you buy Chicago Grana Cheese or a rip-off with the Parmesan name if you aren't interested in that original in the first place.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
parrotbeak said:
I don't know why people buy this stuff when you can just ask for extra packets at Lil Caesars or Pizza Hut.
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While I realize you're joking, the article I linked to actually does cover some of that:

Marty Wilson, chief executive officer of New York-based Sugar Foods, which buys cheese from Schuman and supplies major pizza chains with to-go packets of parmesan, said whenever his contracts come up for renewal, competitors peddling ersatz cheeses surface. And he has lost business to them. “We’re constantly battling cheap imitators across all of our product lines,” Wilson said.

Bob Greco of Cheese Merchants of America said competitors hawking bastardized products have underbid him by as much as 30 percent. “The bad guys win and the rule-followers lose,” Greco said.

The FDA regulates what can legally be called Parmesan or Romano according to standards established in the 1950s to ensure that manufacturers wouldn’t sell cheeses wildly different in composition.
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P

parrotbeak

Member
RoadHazard said:
Well... most American "cheese" isn't really cheese, is it?

:)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Singles
Kraft singles do not qualify for the US FDA Pasteurized Processed Cheese[3] labeling. For this reason Kraft labels them Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product to avoid FDA sanctions. They were calling Kraft Singles Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Food until the FDA gave them a warning in December of 2002 that the product could not be legally labeled as 'food' due to the inclusion of Milk Protein Concentrates.
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they aren't even real slices!

Kraft individually wrapped "slices" are not really slices off a block, but formed separately in manufacturing
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M

milanbaros

Member?
Cyan said:
Italy wants to ban anyone not from the Parma region from calling their parmesan parmesan. That's what I'm referring to. It's a genericized name that they want to essentially trademark.
Click to expand...

Wait, the US allows anyone non Parmigiano Reggiano Parmesan cheese?
 
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