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"How much sawdust can you put in a Rice Krispy treat before people notice?"
Answer: As much as they can legally get away with. If you've ever eated grated Parmesan cheese from the store, you've eaten sawdust. They list it on the can as "cellulose."
Sawdust is not (just) cellulose and cannot be listed as such on nutrition labels. Sawdust, i.e., wood shavings, contains many other compounds, especially lignin. Wood is refined by e.g. the Kraft process to separate the lignin from the cellulose, giving a suspension of cellulose fibers in water called "wood pulp." I didn't look, but I would imagine that calling wood pulp "cellulose" on a nutrition label is fine, 'cause that's what it is.
Now, none of this invalidates the crux of your argument that cellulose can be used as a cheap filler, such as in cheap "Parmesan cheese," and no disagreement here that that shit is scummy af. However, there are some legitimate uses for smaller amounts in foods, such as anti-caking, thickening, and literal dietary fiber.
I love insightful answers like these. It scratches my food science itch.
wtf, how can they get away with that
It's all about companies putting things on the label that are technically true but deliberately misleading. For years, Kraft sold "100% Grated Parmesean cheese" that was nearly 8% cellulose. I assume their excuse if they got caught would be, "Well, our cheese is '100% Grated' just like it says on the label." Meaning, everything in the can WAS "100% grated" but it was NOT 100% cheese. The first reports on this were around 2015, but it looks like their more recent containers don't have the word "100%" anymore. They're constantly playing these stupid little word games with their customers.
And libertarians wonder why the rest of the world think their ideas are stupid.
But muh perfect market!
Pretty sure that would be illegal because it would be based on the interpretation of a "reasonable person", right?
That's when lawyers get involved, and real bullshittery begins.
Money.
Before the FDA, they used to put formaldehyde and cow brains into milk. It killed children and they knew it killed children, but they tried to tell people it actually made children stronger and that we didn't need the FDA.
In the vast majority of cases, every step we've taken away from libertarianism has been a huge improvement.
*looks at capitalism and libertarianism* Why is when something happens, it's always you two?
Just like you can get away with eating cellulose from other plants. It's usually called fibre and everyone likes fibre.
to some degree it's a reasonable ingredient. it prevents the cheese from clumping together.
So would sand and talc powder. Diamond dust.
It's cheap and doesn't hurt you. There are more food like things that will fix it that are more expensive.
Cellulose from wood is literally a dietary fibre. Just like that good healthy fibre you are getting from kale. Which is also mostly cellulose. There's no difference for your body between kale and saw dust.
I don't think it's fair to say kale and cellulose are basically the same.
I'd much rather eat cellulose.
I appreciate this joke
Yup, actually cellulose in food is not a problem at all in my mind, and is probably actually improving the average Americans health if anything.
There's no difference for your body between kale and saw dust.
Be careful now, say something like that and someone might start a weird fad diet
High fibre diets already exist.
True, but I was thinking sawdust diet lol
Well there is right? Kale has other macro and micro nutrients, unlike you're referring to the Fibre part only, then there would be no different right?
What? Does sawdust have high levels of vitamins A, B6, C, K, folate, fiber, carotenoids and manganese? The last time i checked it doesn't.
We're talking about fibre here. If anything, pure cellulose is better than kale.
it's not harmful so i guess as long they print it on the can it's just unethical but not yet illegal.
Because it's kinda-sorta edible (you won't die from eating it) and it makes a cheap filler.
It's not filler, it's an anti-clumping agent to make sure your cheap cheese shakes out of the can correctly every time.
Canned cheese... America really is a dystopia.
This is why Trump wanted to make America grate again.
Right. And they use as much "anti-clumping agent" as they think they can get away with.
It's filler. Because it's cheaper than the advertised product.
Pay off the regulators
Because it's cellulose