Hi, this is Frank Romano for WhatTheyThink.com. Why wood pulp makes ice cream creamier. I forget what publications this is from, but it sound authentic.
What if often in shredded cheese besides cheese? Powered cellulose. Evidently, in order to add fiber and texture to many processed foods, they use cellulose, which as you know comes from trees.
It allows the taste to be creamier on the tongue and to give it more texture. It’s also popular because it’s inexpensive as the cost of flour and sugar and other ingredients goes up, cellulose adds a lot of benefit to the product at a cheaper cost. And it’s considered to be organic.
Companies that produce and sell organic foods puts cellulose in routinely because the Federal Government considers cellulose to be a natural product. It may concern you that you may be eating pieces of wood pulp, but that’s just the way life is nowadays.
Now, this is important information, because now… because we’re using trees for a food, you now have another reason to use trees more intelligently. So we use trees for lumber, we use trees for paper, and by the way, we use trees for food. So if the tree huggers want to chain themselves to the trees, go right ahead. You’ll become soilent green.
Because now trees fall into the same category as wheat and corn, so we have now, a whole new infrastructure that’s evolving where a tree becomes a benefit to our food chain. I can see now that the top of the food triangle will be a tree of some sort. So, this changes the whole paradigm of, you know, let’s save paper and save trees, oh wait a minute, we’re going to eat them. They’re not only biodegradable, they’re edible.
So we have now the tree, which is both buildable, lumber; readable, paper; and no edible! So all of you who want to save trees, you’re affecting my food. You’re affecting my diet.
Leave my trees alone and let us continue to use them because now we’re using every part of the tree for some purpose. And this is a benefit to mankind. Leave trees alone. Stop trying to make us, you know, preserve them forever as though they were sacrosanct. No, they are part of the food chain now and that’s a very good thing.
And that’s my opinion.
Discussion
By Robert Arena on Jul 06, 2011
Frank, I think you may have jumped the shark on this one. Tree huggers may be an extremist branch of conservation advocacy but I think it is use of resources in an informed and intelligent manner that is the point. That is what makes FSC so important. Without proper stewardship there will be no more cellulose enhanced cheese, never a good thing.
By Michael Jahn on Jul 06, 2011
We have been eating things that grow on trees for a very long time. When I make my weekend drive between Sacramento, CA and Simi Valley, CA - I drive by groves and groves of trees. Not sure I am worried that we are going to run out of them.
By Petter Kolseth on Jul 07, 2011
Dear Frank, we have added cellulose (MFC) to foodstuff for decades. It's a good thickener and it's non-allergenic and non-toxic. It is one of the components that make medicine pills white as well.
By Larry Warter on Jul 07, 2011
All we need is edible ink (fully soy based?) and recycling becomes a past problem.
By Paul Butterfield on Jul 15, 2011
I'm less concerned about my refrigerator competing with my printing press (cellulose in food) than I am with my car competing with my liquor cabinet (ethanol in fuel)! :-)