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In February 2016, multiple outlets prompted consumer concern with claims that the Food and Drug Administration discovered wood in many mass-market cheeses, including some higher-end varieties. The rumor wasn't due to poor reading comprehension, as multiple headlines left the impression that ordering cheese on your burger could lead to a mouthful of splinters: Wood, wood in parmesan, and cheese ... may be wood weren't very ambiguous ways to describe the claim. On 17 February 2016, USA Today published an article that claimed: That item cited Bloomberg Businessweek, the outlet that apparently kicked off the flurry of wood worry. After mentioning a 2012 FDA investigation, the site reported they'd done their own independent testing for wood pulp in several cheeses: Some of the less sensational aspects of that article provided a clearer picture of the actual controversy. Bloomberg Businessweek clarified the ingredient in question was actually cellulose (not wood pulp per se) and that blending of lesser cheeses was part of the overall dispute: Although most outlets referenced cellulose, the FDA's list of food additives generally recognized as safe primarily listed carboxymethylcellulose (cellulose gum) as an approved additive in cheese production, which isn't necessarily made from wood. The FDA said: Many of the FDA's regulatory provisions pertained not to the safety of the carboxymethycellulose, but concentration thresholds for specific cheese labeling (in this instance, pasteurized cheese spread): In this case, the FDA appeared less concerned with the safety of cellulose in cheese and more so with labeling standards. A 2011 Mayo Clinic item focused on the increasing use of cellulose in foods for a variety of reasons, but did not mention any health risks: Castle Cheese was the recipient of a FDA warning letter dated 11 July 2013, and the mention of cellulose had to do with possible labeling inconsistencies, not wood in cheese: Another approach during the February 2016 wood cheese dustup came in the form of a February 2016 Bon Appétit article. The piece made a distinction between proper labeling of specific cheeses and the presence of wood pulp in parmesan: Noting that cellulose was completely safe to eat, the magazine again expressed skepticism at the widespread conflation of cellulose and wood pulp: The cellulose-in-food scare was nothing new. On 2 July 2014, Slate covered a then-current panic over wood pulp in burgers: A single article in February 2016 launched a wave of responses to the news that cheese contained cellulose, widely described as wood pulp. But the news was not all that new, as even the original item referenced a controversy that began in late 2012. The FDA indeed investigated cheese manufacturers over the presence of cellulose in cheese, but only in the larger context of honest labeling (not safety or health concerns). Cellulose is considered safe in all expected concentrations (though it could certainly dilute the flavor of parmesan) and it didn't in any way resemble wood or wood pulp as many outlets suggested. Finally, the early 2016 outpouring of concern was not new at the time it occurred. In 2014, the same media meme latched on to wood pulp in fast food, ignoring its presence in a vast quantity of other widely eaten foods. While it was true many cheeses were held to strict standards of labeling, the controversy over cellulose was confined to purity and misrepresentation, not the sneaky addition of wood to otherwise benign cheese.
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