Seventy years ago my grandfather, Arthur, started an Italian cheese importing business in New York (Arthur Schuman Inc.). He may not have known at the time that his company would evolve significantly in the years that followed, but he did know his commitment to high quality products would construct the foundation for success in the decades to follow.
Today, the Italian hard cheese business in the U.S. is north of $3 billion in total sales across both domestic and imported product sectors; consisting of 465 million pounds of cheese sold through retail, food ingredient, and food service channels. Our organization does business in all channels and is vertically integrated as a domestic manufacturer, an importer, and an aggregator of supply from other cheese makers.
It may come as a surprise to some in the industry that somewhere between 20 to 23 percent of the pound volume in domestic Italian hard cheese is adulterated, and non-compliant with the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) for Parmesan, Romano and Asiago.
Adulteration in other food categories has received a lot of media attention and scrutiny. Many will note recent stories citing food fraud pertaining to olive oil, fish, Greek yogurt, honey, fruit juices and beef. In the case of hard cheese, this adulteration is just now coming to light.
Hard cheese adulteration exists primarily in grated, dehydrated, and shredded cheeses and is a significant problem in all three channels.
The consequence of this begins with frauding the consumer: principally by misrepresenting and mislabeling these cheeses as real domestic Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago. In fact, they are imitations that displace real cheese with less expensive fillers, often side stepping time honored aging processes through chemical accelerants.
Arthur Schuman Inc. routinely tests products to determine how they are made and has found numerous examples of grated cheeses labeled as Parmesan that in reality contained anywhere from 20 to 40 percent cellulose, starches, and/or cheese analogs including vegetable oil or other lesser-quality cheeses. The CFR for Parmesan permits the use of cellulose as an anti-caking and flow agent, but the accepted practice in our industry is to the keep the levels at 2 to 4 percent of volume. This is also the amount that is recommended by cellulose makers. Anything past that and you are simply replacing real cheese with inferior, cheaper, non-cheese ingredients.
The outcome of this practice is flavorless, chalky, gritty cheeses that weaken the taste expectations consumers have for Italian varieties. And the losers in this practice include not only the consumer, but reputable cheese companies and dairy farmers. It takes about 13 to 14 pounds of milk to make one pound of real Parmesan, and so the input costs for authentic products are anchored in the market for real dairy. The motivation underneath adulteration is simple–money. This economically motivated adulteration (EMA) aims to lower costs while increasing margins in an effort to hit a desired price point. And in doing so, the conditions are created in our industry that subtract from, denigrate, and dilute the quality reputation of Italian hard cheeses–and in turn, our category and our businesses.
Of course this immediately prompts the question, does anyone really care about EMA in hard cheese beyond the self-interests of reputable cheese companies? To find out, Arthur Schuman Inc. conducted a national quantitative study of consumer attitudes and opinions, from a broad sample of cheese users and buyers across all demographic variants.
Here are some of the highlights:
- 95 percent of respondents are concerned that adulterated products are masquerading as real in the marketplace;
- 78 percent believe that companies making adulterated Italian cheeses should not be allowed to label them as “Parmesan” or “Romano;”
- 61 percent would no longer trust a company that is producing adulterated products and would no longer buy from them;
- 48 percent went even further to say they would not trust any other product made by the same company; and
- 75 percent of those surveyed would be willing to pay anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent more for real domestic Italian cheeses that are correctly labeled.
Consumers want real. They are savvy label readers. They pay attention to the first five ingredients and quickly dispel products with preservatives, artificial flavors, or chemical-sounding ingredients. They want products to be honestly made and honestly labeled. They care about quality and desire great taste. Unfortunately, the types of fraud occurring in the hard cheese category can’t be detected by label reading–and consumers are literally paying the price.
Organizations such as the National Center for Food Protection and Defense monitor the growing problem of food fraud and economically motivated adulteration. They have noted that when ingredients are not accurately disclosed on packaging or products are purposely mislabeled, companies are, at minimum skirting consumers’ desires for transparency; at maximum, may be at risk or implicated for EMA.
Over the last five to seven years there has been a shift in food culture in the U.S. There has been a rise in food and culinary popularity from the proliferation of televised cooking competition shows to high-end subscription service meal kits; and from chefs as A-list celebrities to social media photos of meals created at home or enjoyed at restaurants. Consumers are taking an increased interest in all aspects of their food: sustainability, quality of food supply chains, fair trade and fair treatment, and making those connections to the food they eat and the companies they trust to provide it.
This return to the kitchen and increased awareness of food origins has transformed the food and beverage marketplace and is causing rapid change across retail, ingredient, and food service businesses. Simply stated, consumers are more passionate than ever about food and want higher quality food and beverage experiences to go along with their desire for a higher quality lifestyle.
As such, it is confounding in some respects to see the practices of adulteration and fraud grow in domestic Italian hard cheese, while the consumer is voting daily at the cash register for higher quality, real, and authentic food products. If the cheese industry is truly working to serve consumers in this environment–what they want, what they’re willing to pay for, and the value they care about–then, it is time for this mislabeling to stop.
There may be a viable market–one that may continue in the foreseeable future–for inexpensive cheese and cheese-type products. The difficulty is when these products are represented on product packages, bags, cartons, or menus as real Parmesan or Romano when they are anything but.
Schuman is CEO of Arthur Schuman Inc. Reach him at [email protected].
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