Shop at San Clemente Walmart? Suit Alleges a Popular Food Contains Wood Pulp

By MARC TORRENCE

Walmart brand parmesan cheese, which labels itself as “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese,” actually contains 7 to 10 percent cellulose, a filler and anti-clumping material made from wood pulp, a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court alleges.

In the lawsuit, Marc Moschetta claims he was defrauded because the cheese he was made to believe contained only grated parmesan cheese, in fact, did not.

“Testing shows that at least 7 to 10 percent of the purportedly ’100%’ parmesan cheese consists of cellulose, a filler and anti-clumping agent derived from wood pulp,” the lawsuit says.

The simple and seemingly straightforward label for Walmart’s Great Value brand cheese, which you can see above, misleads consumers into thinking that the product contains only parmesan cheese, the lawsuit says.

Moschetta says that he would not have bought the cheese for what he paid had known that “the 100% representation was false and mis-characterized the amount and percentage of parmesan cheese in the container.”

Cellulose is an FDA-approved filler that keeps cheese from lumping together. It is made from plant fiber, most commonly from wood pulp, and the FDA says it poses no threat or hazard to humans.

The lawsuit did not specify exactly who or what did the testing that led to the conclusion. But earlier this month, Bloomberg News published a report in which it had an independent laboratory test different store-bought parmesan cheeses.

Kraft’s cheese contained 3.8 percent cellulose, Jewl-Osco’s registered 8.8 percent and Walmart’s tested at 7.8 percent, the report said.

A similar lawsuit was filed against Kraft in a California court last week.

“We know earning customer trust starts with high standards for the products we carry,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said in an email to Patch.

“We take this matter seriously. We will review the allegations once we have received the complaint and will respond appropriately with the court.”

The Walmart suit asks for unspecified monetary damages. You can see it in full below: