--- title: FDA Finds Wood Pulp in Major Parmasan Cheese Brands description: The FDA is cracking down on companies that are lying about selling 100% Parmesan cheese canonical: https://time.com/4226321/parmesan-wood-pulp/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-16T20:21:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:55.086Z og:title: FDA Warns The Parmesan You Eat May Be Wood Pulp og:description: The FDA is cracking down on companies that are lying about selling 100% Parmesan cheese og:url: https://time.com/4226321/parmesan-wood-pulp/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb22a2fbb10a92ef1/69887dd2524fc0853edf6c78/gettyimages-170545266.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5049 og:image:height: 2840 og:image:alt: parmesan-cheese og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FDA Warns The Parmesan You Eat May Be Wood Pulp twitter:description: The FDA is cracking down on companies that are lying about selling 100% Parmesan cheese twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb22a2fbb10a92ef1/69887dd2524fc0853edf6c78/gettyimages-170545266.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # FDA Warns The Parmesan You Eat May Be Wood Pulp > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Should I Eat Pizza? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Eat Pizza?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NvpgAWn5.m3u8) (1:39)  _Published 2015-02-12. You might be surprised that four out of five health experts give pizza the thumbs up. But don’t be fooled: these are not greasy thumbs._  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Feb 16, 2016 8:21 PM UTC  TORONTO, ON - MAY 31: Parmesan cheese is used as Chef Danny Mcallum shows Star reporter Corey Mintz his caesar salad recipe. (Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images) TORONTO, ON - MAY 31: Parmesan cheese is used as Chef Danny Mcallum shows Star reporter Corey Mintz his caesar salad recipe. (Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images)Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Feb 16, 2016 8:21 PM UTC The FDA is warning pasta and pizza lovers that cheese labeled “100 percent Parmesan” are often filled with cheese substitutes—like wood pulp. Yes, you’ve been eating wood, thanks to companies like Castle Cheese, which produced Parmesan cheese containing no actual Parmesan for almost 30 years. The president of the company, which supplied megastores like Target, is scheduled to plead guilty this month to charges that carry a sentence of up to a year in prison and a $100,o00 fine, [according to Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/the-parmesan-cheese-you-sprinkle-on-your-penne-could-be-wood). Neil Schuman—who runs Arthur Shcuman Inc. the largest seller of hard Italian cheese in the U.S.—estimates a whopping 20 percent of such cheese are mislabeled. Bloomberg ran experiments on store-bought grated cheese to test for wood pulp content in a lab and found that many cheeses have cellulose, which is made from wood pulp. Essential Everyday 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, from Jewel-Osco, contained 8.8 percent cellulose. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese had 7.8 percent cellulose. Whole Foods 365 brand didn’t list cellulose as an ingredient, and tested at 0.3 percent. Kraft had 3.8 percent cellulose. 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