Is cheese ultra-processed?

Cheddar, parmesan and most block cheese are processed, NOVA group 3: milk, cultures, salt and an enzyme. Wrapped process cheese slices are ultra-processed, because they’re made with emulsifying salts like sodium citrate or sodium phosphate. The words “process cheese” on the package tell you.

Cheese gets put in the processed pile because it’s made in a factory and keeps for months. But NOVA groups it with canned beans and freshly baked bread, as a whole food plus a kitchen ingredient. Its authors name cheeses among their examples of processed foods.

We’d keep cheese off your worry list and swap only the wrapped slices. A slice of cheddar on a sandwich gives you the same thing a process cheese slice does, with one more gram of protein.

Cheddar and a process slice are like a bakery loaf and a soft packaged loaf. The food underneath is the same, and one added ingredient changes how it behaves and which group it’s in.

Why the slices are different

Process cheese starts as real cheese. It’s ground up and heated with an emulsifying agent into one smooth mass. The FDA’s recipe for pasteurized process cheese (21 CFR 133.169) requires one, and lists the ones it allows: sodium and potassium phosphates, sodium, potassium and calcium citrate, and a few tartrates, at up to 3% of the cheese’s weight.

NOVA’s authors list emulsifying salts as a cosmetic additive, one of the markers of group 4. Any cheese made to that recipe has a marker in it, even if it tastes like plain cheddar.

Nothing here yet. Pick a food below.

Try:Turkey sandwichCereal and milkFruit yogurtChicken, rice and broccoli

Add a food

ProteinBread and grainsVegetablesFruitSpreads and saucesDrinksSnacks and sweetsTakeout

White rice1Brown rice1Quinoa1Couscous1Pasta1Whole wheat pasta1Oatmeal1White bread4Whole wheat bread4Bagel4Flour tortilla4Corn tortilla3Pita4Pancakes4Granola4Corn flakes4Bakery sourdough3

Nutrition sits beside it

Both from the site’s food table (USDA). The two are close on nutrition, so this is one of the easier swaps on the site. You keep the taste and the protein and lose the marker.

Check bagged shredded cheese too. Some bags add powdered cellulose so the shreds don’t clump, and NOVA counts anti-caking agents as cosmetic additives.

What we’d do

• Buy block cheese and slice or grate it yourself.
• Check slices for sodium citrate or a phosphate.
• Play round 7 of spot the ultra-processed, cheddar against the slices.