Yeah, I'd be careful with this. While it most certainly is a cheese substitute used at pizza hut (not real mozzarella), the only source I could find that discusses this is a a dairy industry paper.
Put simply, the silicone is not 'in' the cheese, and certainly not 20%. A silicone based compound is instead sprayed on the cheese by the manufacturer to prevent 'foaming'. Silicone as a compound is used in plenty of food prep, and it isn't super uncommon. What is uncommon is that there is much more of this left on the cheese than normal and the amount left (900 parts per million) is outside of FDA guidelines.
It's also worth nothing that this story was broke in 2006, and things may have changed since then (either in the guidelines or the process).
I'm all for fucking over pizza hut, but the only sites that share this stuff are beyondtopsecret and stormfront AFAIK. Let's not lump is into the same group 😉
so I definitely remember reading it somewhere more mainstream than a random dairy industry PDF but I can't find anything other than those milkweed articles. Maybe it was just a reddit post linking to this or something and I'm misremembering it. But the way I remember it, it wasn't the Polydimethylsiloxane thing, it was anti-caking food-grade silicone granules that were added as an anti-caking agent but because of a lack of FDA limits on how much anti-caking agent you can add they were adding a shitload and it was a legal way to use silicone to keep the cheese pull-ey at lower temps or something
but yeah, it does seem that article was the basis either way and it's on pretty shaky ground; but the retraction-ish article from milkweed does bring up the issues of baking polydimethylsiloxane and it creating formaldehyde which is definitely worse than just a bit of food safe silicone in cheese.
also, why is it so hard to remember random internet bullshit from over a decade ago?
also, why is it so hard to remember random internet bullshit from over a decade ago?
I call it internet brain, haha. I swear I spend more time googling my own half remembered shit nowadays than actually learning new things.
Also, that response has some real call the manager vibes, haha. I'm no fan of the dairy industry at all, but this whole milkweed thing seems like they have a beef with pizza hut. Critical support.
yeah I'm definitely thinking that the milkweed doesn't seem to be totally in the pocket of "big dairy" lol. It's kinnnnnda embarrassing that they didn't check the FDA's GRAS list before publishing claims that a giant company is using chemicals that aren't allowed in food products.... but whomst amongst us has not posted unsubstantiated and unverified shit we heard?
Yeah, I'd be careful with this. While it most certainly is a cheese substitute used at pizza hut (not real mozzarella), the only source I could find that discusses this is a a dairy industry paper.
Put simply, the silicone is not 'in' the cheese, and certainly not 20%. A silicone based compound is instead sprayed on the cheese by the manufacturer to prevent 'foaming'. Silicone as a compound is used in plenty of food prep, and it isn't super uncommon. What is uncommon is that there is much more of this left on the cheese than normal and the amount left (900 parts per million) is outside of FDA guidelines.
It's also worth nothing that this story was broke in 2006, and things may have changed since then (either in the guidelines or the process).
I'm all for fucking over pizza hut, but the only sites that share this stuff are beyondtopsecret and stormfront AFAIK. Let's not lump is into the same group 😉
so I definitely remember reading it somewhere more mainstream than a random dairy industry PDF but I can't find anything other than those milkweed articles. Maybe it was just a reddit post linking to this or something and I'm misremembering it. But the way I remember it, it wasn't the Polydimethylsiloxane thing, it was anti-caking food-grade silicone granules that were added as an anti-caking agent but because of a lack of FDA limits on how much anti-caking agent you can add they were adding a shitload and it was a legal way to use silicone to keep the cheese pull-ey at lower temps or something
but also, it was hilarious reading the response from the gigantic pizza chain cheese maker
but yeah, it does seem that article was the basis either way and it's on pretty shaky ground; but the retraction-ish article from milkweed does bring up the issues of baking polydimethylsiloxane and it creating formaldehyde which is definitely worse than just a bit of food safe silicone in cheese.
also, why is it so hard to remember random internet bullshit from over a decade ago?
I call it internet brain, haha. I swear I spend more time googling my own half remembered shit nowadays than actually learning new things.
Also, that response has some real call the manager vibes, haha. I'm no fan of the dairy industry at all, but this whole milkweed thing seems like they have a beef with pizza hut. Critical support.
yeah I'm definitely thinking that the milkweed doesn't seem to be totally in the pocket of "big dairy" lol. It's kinnnnnda embarrassing that they didn't check the FDA's GRAS list before publishing claims that a giant company is using chemicals that aren't allowed in food products.... but whomst amongst us has not posted unsubstantiated and unverified shit we heard?
Today's lesson is always learn before you post. It may also be 'jist post, fuck corps'.