Kraft Parmesan grated cheese: Pantry favourite sparks debate, comparisons to 'real deal' Parmigiano Reggiano
The grated cheese product may add a little oomph to your pasta dishes, but what's really in it?
Kraft Parmesan grated cheese is a long-standing pantry staple for Canadians. But it's facing backlash online for its price, with many suggesting "real deal" cheese wedges are the better option.
Many rely on the shelf-stable powdered cheese in a shaker to add a little oomph to their pasta dishes and are committed to its uniquely fine texture and mild taste. But other consumers of Kraft Parmesan grated cheese can't justify the increasing price of it.
Meanwhile, cheese makers and sellers who are familiar with the difference between the real stuff and the Kraft product strongly recommend the former for its quality and taste.
So what makes the real and processed versions of Parmesan cheese so different — and so special?
Real Parmesan blocks have a long shelf life, too: 'It's already so aged'
For Ping Chiu, owner of Cheese Magic in Toronto, choosing the real deal over the powered stuff is a no-brainer.
“Most of the time it’s a Parmesan blend, and you don’t know what it’s blended with,” she tells Yahoo Canada of the pre-grated cheese. “The real stuff says Parmigiano Reggiano on the rind ... You can’t go wrong with the real stuff. With Kraft, it’s cow’s milk but it’s definitely pasteurized, which makes it less strong.”
Despite the difference in makeup, both classic Parmesan wedges and Kraft's pre-grated version have a long shelf life.
“When we get Italian Reggiano, the best before day is two years, just because it’s already so aged" Chiu says. "I’ve had this store for 36 years and it’s never gone bad.”
So, what's really in it? A look at every ingredient in Kraft Parmesan
Art Hill is an adjunct professor of food science at Guelph University and co-author of the Cheese Making Technology e-book. He says there are two reasons why Parmesan cheese takes a long time to rot.
For one, the cheese is fermented, which provides inhospitable conditions for bacteria. Second, the cheese is heat-treated in order to remove moisture, which impacts the ability for bacteria to grow.
As for the ingredients of the pre-grated Kraft cheese, Hill helped break down what each of them do.
Milk: “It will certainly be made from milk,” he says. “The vast portion of the proponent will be natural cheese.”
Salt: “Salt is in almost any cheese and it makes no difference if it’s sea salt or any other kind.”
Cream: Hill describes this as a standardized fat content. “When they blend the milk in the initial cheese making process, they’re adding cream just to standardize the fat,” he says. “If they’re adding cream, they’re taking skim milk solids and adding cream to get the right balance of protein to fat.”
Modified milk ingredient: This, along with cream, will be part of the milk blend. “‘Modified ingredients’ is a loose term, but it almost always means the filtration to concentrate proteins,” Hill explains.
Bacteria culture: It's “the engine of the cheese process,” Hill says, and a crucial part of its make up.
Calcium chloride: Hill says this is standard in almost all cheese, especially if it’s made with pasteurized milk. It assists with the coagulating — which is the process that changes liquid to a solid or semisolid state. “When we pasteurize the milk we decrease the coagulating enzyme," he says.
Lipase: “Lipase breaks down fatty acid and gives it a strong smell, like baby vomit, but at the right levels, it gives flavours,” Hill says.
Microbial enzyme: Hill says microbial enzyme is used as a cheaper replacement for rennet, an enzyme that coagulates the milk. “It takes a template of rennet - a coagulating agent produced by live organisms - and incorporates them into bacteria, mold or yeast.”
Cellulose powder: This is an anti-caking agent that’s “there to keep the grated cheese from sticking together.”
Potassium sorbate: “A preservative there to prevent mold growth”
Canadians react: 'Still something about the wood dust Parm I really love'
A Reddit post on the Loblaws is out of Control forum from earlier this month called out the price a 250-gram container of Kraft Parmesan — what the post's title referred to as “cheese flavoured wood pulp” — being sold at Loblaws for $10.99.
Some in the comments expressed their devotion to Kraft cheese's taste and unique texture.
"The price is a travesty but I will hear no slander.," TanyaMKX wrote. "This sh*t is the bomb and elite on pasta."
"Still something about the wood dust Parm I really love," Bedbugsinmybum wrote.
Many others rooted for the real thing.
“Literally just buy real Parmesan and get a grater,” Readman31 wrote. “You'll never go back and it's way tastier.”
“Real [Parmigiano] Reggiano imported from Italy is around $11-12 [for] a 200-gram wedge,” user rocannon10 wrote. “Tastes way better than this cellulose powder.”
At Toronto's Cheese Magic, a 100-gram wedge of Parmesan costs $5.49.
Meanwhile, Walmart is selling 1 kilogram of Parmigiano Reggiano for $29.97, while Costco has it for $25.49 for 1 kilogram.
