What is the point of individually wrapping cheese slices in plastic, only to cover a bunch of them in more plastic?
Title.
It feels like such a waste.
EDIT: This is the type of cheese I am referring to. It comes wrapped in a piece of plastic then bundled together with x more and all of them get covered in plastic
I think I can answer this. I remember when the singles came out. Used to be they had American cheese in a block. Sort of. They were sliced and stacked. This was the same American cheese/cheese product used in the singles. Exact same dimensions. The package was not re-sealable though. So I always put my block in a quart zip lock after opening. People were too fucking dumb to do this so their block of American cheese would go stale. And they complained about slices getting stuck together. Why in the world did Kraft decide to make the singles instead of changing the packaging be resealable and have wax paper like every other cheese? I have no idea.
Why in the world did Kraft decide to make the singles instead of changing the packaging be resealable and have wax paper like every other cheese?
Because unfortunately, the average American is that stupid and lazy.
Source: am American and forgot how to spell camplekated words so I ju
It's kind of convenient for grilling on the go. Have 4 patties, grab 4 slices and throw them in the top of the cooler, rather than the entire cheese pack, or repacking 4 slices.
In Australia, the only cheese you could buy in the supermarket in the 1970s was Kraft in the little blue packets sold in the dry goods section.
To buy "real" cheese you had to go to a dairy, or go to the city centre and buy cheese cut off the block and wrapped in greaseproof paper from a contintental delicatessan.
Polyethylene film was not available.
So when it came out and you could buy real cheese in film from the supermarket, Kraft responded by bringing out "more convenient " Kraft Singles, which you didn't have to laboriously (?) cut from the block.
That's not cheese. It's "cheese product."
To my understanding, it is actually made of cheese, just cheese that has been melted, pasteurized to extend shelf life and then cooled back into solid cheese again.
Not quite. You're almost there. The manufacturers add emulsifying chemicals and preservatives.
Its salted curds like cheese, but its not matured. Instead mineral salts are added which absorb the water, the same sort of stuff used in corned beef, bacon and ham.
The colouring is artificial. Its naturally a light grey colour.
If it was cheese it would be legal to label it as such.
It's "orange" and "oil"
You're thinking of cheese wizz or spray cheese.
No, I'm not.
Not just any cheese product, but "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product", because they got in trouble with the FDA a couple of times by calling them "food" hilariously.
American cheese apparently melts so at least it makes some kind of sense.
Kraft singles in Australia are basically made from the same plastic as the packaging and are in no danger of melting or being mistaken for cheese.
Do they not use milk to make Kraft singles in Australia the way they do in America? 🤔
Food tech is kinda my area, so I went and did a little research and it turned into quite a ride. For cultural context, grilled (broiled in the US, I think) cheese and Vegemite is kind of a traditional Aussie snack. Just a slice of white bread with butter and Vegemite, slice of cheese on top, stick it under the grill.
The Kraft singles I remember from my childhood absolutely did not behave like anything resembling real cheese when you did this. It melted on the inside, sure. But the outside just dried out and turned into a kind of plasticky skin, then bubbled and burned. So you were left with this partially blackened and crunchy cling-film like skin disguising a thin layer of vaguely dairy-adjacent molten plastic goop that was guaranteed to stick to and sear the roof of your mouth. Then the skin came off in one piece and slapped you on the chin with the equally hot residue of said plastic goop. For some reason kids loved this.
I'm not sure when OP last ate them, but the Kraft singles I know got axed in like 2017 when Mondelez sold their cheese line to Bega. That makes it incredibly hard to track down the original formula to figure out what in the world they were really made of. They have, however, since been re-released and claim to be at least 45% cheese, which I suspect is a lot more than the ones I remember, probably does melt, and falls pretty squarely into the "processed cheese" definition according to FSANZ. There's no way in hell I'm buying some to try it though.
Makes them easier to separate.
If you buy cheese sliced by your grocer, they generally won't put anything between the slices, maybe just some wax paper.
But harder to unwrap.
Let’s be honest here, we aren’t talking about cheese. They are packed per slice because they melt easily. If they weren’t you would end up with an orange blob when it hits room temperature.
To get some free cheese with all that plastic you're buying
I have never encountered this product. Can you give a brand/product name example?
So, what's the yellow stuff for? To keep the bags from sticking together?
"American cheese". I searched for an image and conveniently Wikipedia shows one with the clarification that it's an "American cheese single".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheese
But, imagine ten or twenty of those individually wrapped slices wrapped together in another bit of plastic.
You can hit an image search for "American cheese singles" and find a lot more examples.
https://ibb.co/SVRjbyj https://ibb.co/SnSB5cV
This was bought from Aldi
Any cheese by Kraft labeled as "singles" would fit the bill. I've seen American, Swiss, and Mozzarella done this way. Italics as I cannot confirm other countries would consider it cheese.
check the labels folks, "Cheese food product" is called that because it cannot legally be called cheese.
if i buy the store brand american cheese at my supermarket, they're not individually packed and aren't really that hard to separate on their own, so lmao idk why Kraft does that.
it is stupid and should at least not be done with plastic. there is a brand of cheese where it's entirely wrapped in compostable plastic (has the texture of baking paper) and is seperated with the same material. the best option would be to buy cheese that doesn't stick together easily (like gouda).
It's for lazy people. I get the ones that aren't wrapped. They're cheaper too.
I'm pretty sure that wrapping is part of the manufacturing process of the "cheese slice". It matches the contours of the wrapping too perfectly.
Odds are, because its cheaper than a cardboard box.
It bundles them together. Imagine buying a loose handful of slices, it doesn't work well.
I’ve bought plenty like that, they’re sliced and bundled together in a plastic container. Unless there is some substance between them that I’m unaware of
I never understood why Americans eat this so called cheese. Why cant they just buy like real cheese that melts? It serves the same purpose but is actually cheese with lots of taste and aroma. I just dont get it.
It makes us feel very French to eat cheddar fond.
I'm American and don't get it either. When I was younger that was the only cheese I knew and I decided I didn't like cheese because of it. It took a long time to realize that stuff isn't real cheese and that the real stuff is very good.
I also think it isn't legal to call some of it "cheese". I know Kraft singles at the very least uses some deceptive phrasing to say it's cheese-like or cheese-flavored or something like that instead of calling it "cheese".
American here. That oily "cheese" is gross. We have normal cheese, even normal pre-sliced cheese that doesn't have the plastic film wrapping it. The brand I normally get for sandwiches has a plastic zip-lock package, and the slices themselves are separated by wax paper. I prefer the pepper jack, but sometimes I go for swiss or provolone.
It probably melts and you have one block of cheese once it's on the shelves of the store. (I'd have to test that hypothesis. But that stuff is really sticky and soft. I bet you can't slice it and have it stay like that any other way.)
Other than that: convenience. People even buy pre-sliced Gouda.
It is a big waste! Unless your cheese melts very easily, there is no reason to have that amount of plastic.
This kind of cheese has a very low melt point.
The entire purpose of this cheese is is incredibly low melt point.
That’s how it’s made. They melt cheese with emulsifying salts, squirt it into a plastic envelope, and it cools into the shape of the wrapper.
thanks, i'm immediately going to continue never eating the disguising "cheese" slices ever again.
Calling it "cheese" is like saying meatloaf made from meat is "meat"