1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:09,479
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff,

2
00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:12,920
Speaker 1: Christian saga. Here. Humans have been making cheese for at

3
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,920
Speaker 1: least seven thousand years. It is, after all, an efficient

4
00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:21,360
Speaker 1: and tasty way to preserve nutritious milk beyond its normal lifespan.

5
00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,520
Speaker 1: But cheese can be expensive, inconsistent from batch to batch

6
00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:29,000
Speaker 1: in some varieties don't last a whole lot longer than milk.

7
00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:32,760
Speaker 1: And have you ever tried cooking with it? Let's say

8
00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:35,400
Speaker 1: you want to make nacho dip. Everybody wants to make

9
00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,000
Speaker 1: nacho dip. But when you heat regular cheese, the fats

10
00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,800
Speaker 1: can melt away from the rest of the cheese solids,

11
00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,040
Speaker 1: leaving you with a pool of oil and a lumpy,

12
00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:50,280
Speaker 1: stringy mess. Enter processed cheese, of which American cheese is

13
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,320
Speaker 1: a particular type. This stuff is consistent by design, has

14
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,160
Speaker 1: a longer shelf life, and is usually cheaper than natural cheese,

15
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:02,959
Speaker 1: while melting like a dream. But how what arcane science

16
00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:07,760
Speaker 1: imbued natural cheese with such unnatural properties? Well? Here in

17
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:10,399
Speaker 1: the United States, the f d A is crafted an

18
00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:15,520
Speaker 1: exhaustively specific legal definition of processed cheese. The short version

19
00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:19,880
Speaker 1: is that it's a type of food made by pulverizing, heating,

20
00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,600
Speaker 1: and mixing actual cheese of one or more types with

21
00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:29,320
Speaker 1: an emulsifier into a homogeneous plastic mass. That's plastic as

22
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:33,240
Speaker 1: in the physical definition, i e. A substance easily shaped

23
00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,800
Speaker 1: or molded. Processed cheese isn't actually made of plastic, but

24
00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:43,120
Speaker 1: it can contain water, salt, artificial color flavorings, and a

25
00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,480
Speaker 1: very long list of chemicals that would bore you to

26
00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:51,080
Speaker 1: tears on a podcast. The key to processed cheese smoothness

27
00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:55,200
Speaker 1: is the emulsifying agents, and emultion is a mixture of

28
00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:58,680
Speaker 1: two liquids that don't usually mix, like oil and water.

29
00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:02,360
Speaker 1: No matter how hard you stir or shake them together,

30
00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:06,200
Speaker 1: they'll separate back out, but emulsifiers make the two plain

31
00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,840
Speaker 1: nice chemically speaking. That's because they interact with both liquids,

32
00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 1: grabbing globules of one and suspending them evenly throughout the other.

33
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:17,920
Speaker 1: Cheese and milk, for that matter, is made up of

34
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:22,120
Speaker 1: fats and fat soluble substances, plus a solution of water

35
00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:27,160
Speaker 1: soluble proteins and minerals. The added emulsifiers keep them blended

36
00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,480
Speaker 1: together even when they're heated. The other optional ingredients are

37
00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:37,160
Speaker 1: texture and flavor enhancers. Preservatives and cheese making shortcuts designed

38
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:41,760
Speaker 1: to speed the manufacturing process along. It's science cheese, everybody.

39
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,120
Speaker 1: But as long as the finished cheese has moisture, fat,

40
00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,480
Speaker 1: and pH levels that closely resemble those of its actual

41
00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:53,440
Speaker 1: cheese ingredients, the stuff can legally be called quote pasteurized

42
00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,280
Speaker 1: processed cheese, and if it's made from cheddar, washed curd,

43
00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:01,400
Speaker 1: colby or granular cheese, it can be called American cheese.

44
00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,040
Speaker 1: But you may have noticed some extra words creeping in

45
00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:09,799
Speaker 1: on labels, dubbing the stuff pasteurized processed cheese, food or

46
00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:15,720
Speaker 1: spread or product. Those designations indicate that other ingredients have

47
00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,320
Speaker 1: been put in that reduce the amount of actual cheese

48
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:23,360
Speaker 1: in the finished food. Cheese food can contain additional milk,

49
00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,400
Speaker 1: skim milk, buttermilk and cheese whey. These lower the cost

50
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:32,120
Speaker 1: and increase the meltiness. And that's not a real word,

51
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:36,360
Speaker 1: but cheese food must have moisture, fat and pH levels

52
00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:40,320
Speaker 1: that are close to natural cheese and cheese product can

53
00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:44,360
Speaker 1: throw those rules right out the window, and cheese spread

54
00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:48,880
Speaker 1: may have added moisture sweeteners, starches, and moisture binding gums

55
00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:53,960
Speaker 1: or hydrocholoids to optimize spread ability. All of these creations

56
00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:03,480
Speaker 1: are required to consist of at least cheese. Check out

57
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:05,680
Speaker 1: the brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this

58
00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:22,720
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.