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It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

(www.thephcheese.com)
407 points ilikepi | 4 comments | 3/31/2025, 2:49:00 PM | HN request time: 0.917s | source
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xattt ◴[3/31/2025, 3:20:00 PM] No.43536057[source]▶

Tangential, but I recently noticed that natamycin, an antifungal agent, is being used in packages of shredded cheese as a preservative.

I was a little taken aback on seeing it, given that antibiotic stewardship has been pushed so much in the last decade.

I realize that natamycin is an antifungal and not an antibiotic, and that mechanisms of developing resistance are likely different between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. However, I’m still somewhat concerned what long-term low-level exposure will mean.

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0_____0 ◴[3/31/2025, 3:48:00 PM] No.43536380[source]▶

Tangent on tangent - in addition to the antifungal there is also anticaking agent (nothing crazy, often some type of flour) that noticeably changes the mouthfeel of cheeses that come pre-shredded. If you notice a grainy texture in your food, try grating it off a brick instead!

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astura ◴[3/31/2025, 4:05:00 PM] No.43536574[source]▶

People are super religious about this but I've never been able to tell pre-shredded cheese from cheese I've shredded myself and I don't think anyone else can tell the difference in a blind taste test.

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kube-system ◴[3/31/2025, 4:23:00 PM] No.43536799[source]▶

Are you buying cheese that's shredded at the deli or something? The processed stuff in the bag seems to be plainly noticeable to me...

e.g.

https://www.health.com/thmb/weSqKiqtCDqtEK3nJ5HWrViwQNM=/150...

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Suppafly ◴[3/31/2025, 5:14:00 PM] No.43537341[source]▶

>The processed stuff in the bag seems to be plainly noticeable to me...

Sure, when you're eating it by the handful, but when it's melted in a dish (the thing people typically use it for) you aren't going to notice.

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0_____0 ◴[3/31/2025, 5:24:00 PM] No.43537461[source]▶

I wonder if there's a confounding factor here, because that's precisely where I tend to notice it the most. The anticaking agent lends a grainyness to an otherwise smooth foodstuff.

Are you thinking more of a cheese sauce, or cheese that gets melted into e.g. a burrito?

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1. Suppafly ◴[3/31/2025, 5:37:00 PM] No.43537586[source]▶

My family eats a lot of shredded cheese, pre and home shredded, I've never noticed in anything melted nor in anything where it's only half melted like tacos. Any graininess that might be present would be far offset by the other ingredients, but honestly I've never tasted any graininess. The anticaking stuff isn't even grainy, so why would the resulting cheese be grainy? You can lick a piece of pre-shredded cheese and the anticaking stuff flavorlessly dissolves in your mouth. I honestly believe most of this "graininess" is imagined after people read about it on the internet or hear about it from cooking shows. People have convinced themselves that cellulose = wood (notice it's mentioned in this thread several times) and somehow lose the ability to critically think about it. While cellulose is an anticaking agent, I don't think I've ever seen it used for cheese. Typically you see cheese using a modified corn starch. The anti-caking agent can cause some issues if you're making cheese sauces specifically, but generally if you're making a cheese sauce you're mixing in other ingredients and then dumping it over macaroni or potatoes or something anyway and it won't matter.

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2. kube-system ◴[3/31/2025, 5:45:00 PM] No.43537690[source]▶

> While cellulose is an anticaking agent, I don't think I've ever seen it used for cheese. Typically you see cheese using a modified corn starch.

I've seen potato, corn, and cellulose. I suspect the ideal choice depends on the type of cheese.

Here's shredded parmesan with cellulose for example:

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/42642acb-1802-40dd-bfa6-795...

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3. Suppafly ◴[3/31/2025, 6:03:00 PM] No.43537863[source]▶

parmesan is pretty much the only one i ever see with cellulose

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4. kelnos ◴[3/31/2025, 6:58:00 PM] No.43538475{3}[source]▶

> > While cellulose is an anticaking agent, I don't think I've ever seen it used for cheese.

> parmesan is pretty much the only one i ever see with cellulose

Can you stop, please? You keep contradicting yourself, and I don't really see the purpose in repeating, over and over, the assertion that because you can't perceive a difference in something, no one else can either. That's pretty arrogant, and ignores, well, basically everything about how humans work.

These subtheads here are just noise, and are distracting me from the rest of the interesting conversation.