The major problem with “American Cheese” is that it isn’t American Cheese anymore. Over the years, it has been diluted and made to be more like plastic, and accordingly it has been regulated by the Food & Drug Administration, giving it new names. But the new names sound very much like the original.
Real American Cheese looks like this and as of this writing, sells for $8.85 for 8 oz. Note that the Label says “Pasteurized Process American Cheese".
Land o’ Lakes American Cheese was about half the cost and here are the ingredients:
Mostly Milk, Skim milk, buttermilk, and Milkfat.
But that was still way too expensive, so they started adding oil and other artificial stuff and started wrapping them as “singles”.
Now you can get 12 oz for $4.98, and they have lots of wrapping you can “easily” (not) remove, so you don’t have to worry about the slices sticking together. Note that this is called a Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product. NOT “American Cheese”.
But wait, it gets worse. For $1.47 for 10 2/3 oz, you can get this stuff. It is called Imitation Pasteurized Process Cheese Food.
Here are the ingredients. Soybean Oil, Food Starch, Whey, Gelatin etc.
No milk, skim milk, or buttermilk. Only a little bit of whey (the 4th ingredient by volume).
I’ve also seen labels that say Imation Pasteurized Process Cheese Food stuff which might be entirely plastic for all I know. (I don’t eat it).
There is an excellent article here:
WHAT'S THAT STUFF? - Process Cheese
WHAT'S THAT STUFF? February 7, 2000 Volume 78, Number 6 CENEAR 78 6 p. 51 ISSN 0009-2347 Process Cheese [Photo courtesy of Kraft Foods] W hen I was in first grade, I went through a cerebral cheese period. My cousin Michael got me started because he brought a jar of Cheez Whiz to school in his lunch box every day. Naturally, I was jealous, but I was also curious. What was pasteurized process cheese sauce? He would spread it on crackers, his sandwich, or dip a celery stick into it.I used to daydream about bringing Cheez Whiz to school for lunchbut, alas, it never happened. Yet other questions later arose: What was cheese food? Cheese spread? Cheese product? Imitation cheese? How were they different from just plain old American cheese? Anyhow, I forgot about it. With this past holiday season, however, I had a renewed interest in cheese. I began to dig up some cheese factoids. Cheese is perhaps the oldest processed food known to mankind and one of the most ubiquitous foodstuffs in the world. In 1910, the average American ate 5 lb of cheese per year, but that had grown to 28 lb per year by 1998. Process cheeses, around for more than 50 years, have had a great impact on this growth spurt. I witnessed plenty of big cheeses during the holidays who had a cheese ball in the fridge, set out slices of American cheese for sandwiches, or served melted Cheez Whiz or Velveeta mixed with salsa as queso dip for nachos during college football bowl games. To determine the difference between all the types of process cheese, I thought I could just phone Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods makers of Cheez Whiz and Velveetaand find out all I wanted to know. However, a spokeswoman had to cheese it on providing any information for proprietary reasons. So I ended up on the Internet plowing through Title 21 Part 133 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, which governs cheeses, and I contacted Dairy Management Inc. , a Rosemont, Ill., firm responsible for increasing demand for dairy products on behalf of U.S. dairy farmers. Beginning with the basics, cheese is a concentrated dairy food made from milk. A starter culture of bacteria is first added to convert some lactosethe primary milk sugarto lactic acid. An enzyme, commonly chymosin, is next added to coagulate caseinthe major milk proteininto a soft solid, or curd, that consists of calcium caseinate and milkfat. Milkfat exists as globules of a triglyceride wrapped in a phospholipid-protein membrane. The remaining liquidthe whey, which contains soluble proteins and lactoseis next removed to leave the fresh cheese. The curd is then stirred and heated, salt is added or the curd may be treated with brine, and the cheese is pressed into molds. For ripened cheeses, the curd is further treated with select strains of bacteria, mold, or yeast that generate enzymes that can hydrolyze fats, proteins, and lactose. These biochemical changes modify the cheese's flavor and texture as it ages. Two criteria used by the Food & Drug
https://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/7806sci2.html
That article explains some of the cheese definitions:
Cheese is a concentrated dairy food made from milk. A starter culture of bacteria is first added to convert some lactose—the primary milk sugar—to lactic acid.
Pasteurized process cheese, is made from one or more cheeses, such as cheddar or Colby, and may have cream or anhydrous milkfat added. The cheese is blended and heated with an emulsifier—typically a sodium or potassium phosphate, tartrate, or citrate—and other optional ingredients such as water, salt, artificial color, and spices or other flavorings.
Pasteurized process cheese food is a variation of process cheese that may have dry milk, whey solids, or anhydrous milkfat added, which reduces the amount of cheese in the finished product. It must contain at least 51% of the cheese ingredient by weight, have a moisture content less than 44%, and have at least 23% milkfat.
Pasteurized process cheese spread is a variation on cheese food that may contain a sweetener and a stabilizing agent, such as the polysaccharide xanthan gum or the Irish moss colloid carrageenan, to prevent separation of the ingredients. The cheese must be spreadable at 70 F, contain 44 to 60% moisture, and have at least 20% milkfat.
Pasteurized process cheese product is process cheese that doesn't meet the moisture and/or milkfat standards.
Imitation cheese is made from vegetable oil; it is less expensive, but also has less flavor and doesn't melt well.
