One of the most basic functions of government should be to require accurate descriptions of products in the market. I am a big believer in the free market and tend to resist government regulation whenever possible. However, the free market functions best when the government enforces the rules to prevent misleading and fraudulent practices. This week is an example of how labeling continues to mislead consumers. While parmesan cheese is often advertised as “100%” pure, it can include wood pulp and cheaper cheeses such as cheddar, Swiss, and mozzarella. One manufacturer, Castle Cheese, supplying Target actually had no parmesan in its “100 percent” parmesan cheese product.
The FDA is thankfully prosecuting Castle Cheese (though not apparently Target) for the fraud on consumers. One honest cheese supplier has called for tighter controls on its own industry because of an estimated 40% misleading or fraudulent labeling.
In the case of Castle, its president is expected to plead guilty this month to criminal charges. It is still unclear how this situation could have been allowed to get so bad. Bloomberg ran its own tests on “100 percent” grated Parmesan products and easily found fraud. It found that Essential Everyday 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, from Jewel-Osco, was 8.8 percent cellulose while Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese registered 7.8 percent cellulose. Even more surprising for some who shop at Whole Food to get better products, the testing found that Whole Foods 365 brand didn’t list cellulose as an ingredient on the label, but still tested at 0.3 percent. Kraft had 3.8 percent.
The prosecution is welcomed but it represents the most extreme possible case. We need to be prosecuting more companies for augmenting their products while claiming 100% purity. When you sell someone 100% pure parmesan and then add wood or other cheeses, it would seem to me to be a case of simple fraud or misleading labeling. That would seem the least we can expect from the FDA since, as Bloomberg showed, testing is relatively easy and there are a relatively small number of major suppliers.
I have to laugh when the govt. non elected corrupt agency fails and an independent group uncovers something, progressives want more money for the corrupt agency that failed. It’s libtard logic at its best. We can regulate ourselves if the govt. would just get out of the way.
On a side note, I wonder if they even broke any laws to begin with. Some food manufacturers us the term “Food Product” after the substance they are making. I also know that cheese “cheddar” is not trademarked so the term can be used very loosely.
Nothing is ever simple. When the lawyers get a hold of it, a law stating “$5.00 fine for spitting on the side walk” becomes a case involving intent, discrediting witnesses, and the definition of side walk.
If it doesn’t say “parmesan reggiano” don’t buy it. Italy has very strict rules about that cheese. Ditto olive oil from Spain.
Who is going to “advertise” that Target is selling wood chips as cheese? A competitor? Not likely. The government? What nonsense.
Hire more inspectors and starting locking people up AND fining them instead of just fining them. When people start going to jail for this, THAT will solve some problems.
And stop barring the media from investigative journalism!
Congress is at the center of this. Probably both parties doing favors for their lobbyists. Congress budgets how much money is going toward fraud, inspections, investigations and so on. And wherever possible, they underfund the agencies. Meat and poultry inspection, OSHA, FDA, Dept of Agriculture. Only the military and Homeland Security appear to get more money than they ask for, and even there, not enough toward inspectors general. Our defense department is unable to account for literally trillions of dollars gone missing in the last three decades. That’s trillions with a “T”.
JT, you mention the failure of the FDA to prosecute Target in selling a product such as this, but you do not address the culpability of Wal-Mart, Kraft of Whole Foods for doing precisely the same thing. If anyone should be prosecuted in this group, I would tend to find Kraft, in particular, as being the most responsible for the false and misleading labeling of a product. Target, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods aren’t the manufacturers, themselves, of these products. At least, that’s my assumption. While that may not serve to relieve them of all responsibility for selling these products, that is an important distinction and should not be ignored. While I could be mistaken, I am making the assumption that Kraft, itself, is a manufacturer, with its own plants and factories, where it would be impossible to claim a lack of knowledge regarding the false and deceptive labeling. That is, of course, assuming that Kraft didn’t contract with another cheese manufacturer to produce items, such as this one, using its label. Target, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods aren’t in the business of making cheese–they simply contract with factories to manufacture products with their private, house labels.
I found it humorous that the FDA is prosecuting Castle Cheese, but no mention as to who is going to prosecute the FDA. Why is that agency asleep at the wheel? Where is its accountability in this matter? The people, employed by the FDA, with the responsibility for this obvious lack of oversight and/or corruption, should be investigated and prosecuted.
KCF, Bingo. Capitalism is the best system and losing money changes behavior more quickly than any regulation.
Advertising that “Target, WalMart and Whole Foods sell wood chips instead of parmesan” will have more effect than yet another law and the associated government make-work program.
“Advertising that “Target, WalMart and Whole Foods sell wood chips instead of parmesan” will have more effect than yet another law and the associated government make-work program.”
Who knew! Its health food. Your body can’t digest cellulose.
All the flavor of Parmesan and none of the calories! Put pep in your step and flavor in you diet with new, improved Parmesan flavored wood chips! Better living through corporate mendacity.
It’s not that vendors knowingly lie about their wares. That’s not news.
It’s the crony capitalism comprising alleged government “regulating” agencies like the FDA. They collect multiple millions in tax dollars, spending much of it to convince the public they “protect” us. In reality, they are always for sale to, and doing the bidding of the highest corporate bidders.
Jim22’s aspartame “regulation” is the FDA poster boy demonstrating this point.
Look at this open door: Government paid “regulators” make friends in high places of the industries they allegedly “regulate.” They aspire primarily to get their easy government pension, then go immediately to the employ of the same industries they allegedly “regulated.”
When such regulators see rampant obvious violation, how do you think they tend to shade their reports?
Government alleged banking regulators directly caused the 2008 depression which still wreaks havoc on the world’s inhabitants (the regulators simply put a band aid on the crimes, in the form of more fiat debt). The reason Obama put none of the bankers in prison, is because the trial would confirm in the public’s mind that the regulators intentionally caused it. (That, and the the fact that Obama shall soon be amassing $1B in speaking fees from the same bankers. Barack and most politicians promised to stop this activity, but you might as well hope for the sun to rise in the west. Hillary and Bill say they left the White House in debt, and are now worth almost $100M. Do you think they “worked” for that money?)
What the regulators swore to do, and are specifically paid to do, and failed to do, is called “criminal negligence.”
The wealth growth since the depression is to the top 1%. The bottom 80% now earn late 70s wages, working three jobs (adjusted dollars). When your overlord MSM pundits mention “wage growth,” notice they never mention comparative wages for the middle class, which is disappearing.
All going exactly to plan.
On an unrelated note: I finally figured out what Obama means when he says, “I TRUST Americans will not elect Trump.” Translation: “I don’t TRUST anyone who promotes Trump, and neither should you.”
Ban both major parties til at least 2066.
Big Government and its darn regulations are putting honest cellulose (er, “parmesan cheese”) manufacturers out of business! Gotta talk to The Donald about this….
Jim22: do you really think government agencies are just inept? Isn´t corrupt a better word for it? Consumers need to demand accountability from the FDA, but they don´t and that´s why people literally eat sh#t – in their peanut butter!
Stay away from cheese. You’ll look better, feel better, have more energy, and save money. The less a food is manipulated by humans, the better it is. Hence fresh fruit and vegetables and whole grains are the best tasting, the best for you, and bring the least profit to scam artists.
Put Target in your sights. And do not let them get ahold of a credit or debit card. Your account will get stolen.
Sounds like Bloomberg did a good job at exposing these cheese manufacturers. No need for the FDA. Bloomberg called them out, so don’t buy their cheese. No more regulations required. Let the free market work. Isaac hates that idea.
Why would a inept govt. agencies stamp like the FDA make you feel better? If the FDA gives you a warm fuzzy, just research aspartame and how it passed. All agencies should be removed.
Stocking up on 100 Percent Pure Parmesan now. At least in an emergency we will be able to cook and keep warm – burning the wood chips – ‘cheer up honey and put some more Parmesan on the fire, I am sure FEMA will rescue us any day now’.
It was not long ago that we were told that regulation was unnecessary because the markets would drive out bad actors by giving consumers choice. On the contrary it seems that unregulated markets lead to a race to the bottom because no consumer can test and verify all the products they need to purchase. .
Justice Holmes has identified the culprit – those who rationalize dishonest behavior as “just doing business”.
It is a shame that it is picked up in school or in practice that it is not only ok to behave dishonestly, but that you will never succeed if you don’t. Oh, and the bean counters just look at the beans.
In essence what happens is that the cheese company delivers crates of real Parmesan cheese from Italy to our representatives, each block wrapped in crisp one hundred dollar bills, and business goes on as usual.
When I lived in Southern France for many years, near the Italian border, my landlady would take a trip to shop in Italy once every few months. I would pay my rent every three months, coinciding with her returns. The Parma Hams and Parmesan Cheeses I tasted were out of this world. In Italy, France, and other countries where these delicacies originate, the governments strictly regulate what is and is not and what can and can not be labeled. In this case we need more government regulation. That’s why we have a government. Those who cite government intrusion should be the ones munching on wood pulp, hopefully choking on it.
I am not surprised, sadly. I can say that I only use the cheese once a year or so. So wood chips would be fine. 😉
It’s appalling but not surprising. The truth is that the business plans of most large American businesses rely in part on a large does of fraud. From adulterated food to worthless stocks or investment “vehicles”, American business generally sees no downside in engaging in massive fraud. Congress has done its best to make sure that regulatory agencies don’t have the the staff or the power to go after the criminals either by stripping the agencies of that power by going after budgets, drafting standards that make the agencies mere rubber stamps or simply putting industry insiders in charge of the very agencies that are supposed to regulate the industry, thus, blunting the agencies commitment and effectiveness.
People can wail on the FDA and no doubt it has made some missteps but the real culprit is the political climate that makes enforcement of even the watered down regulations we do have impossible or highly unlikely. In case no one has noticed corporations rule! Corporatists in both parties see corporations as their constituency not flesh and blood humans.
You would hope the FDA will do something, but I won’t hold my breath.