Metro Pursuit

By Mike Thayer

I love the original, classic Velveeta cheese!  It's great on Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, it's my go-to for making Chili Con Queso, nachos, a loaded up Mac & Cheese w/bacon......  But Velveeta's latest product offering, shredded *cheese*...   it disappoints.

Granted, Velveeta is the maker of 'cheese product'.....  I knew that going in and so with the classic brick Velveeta so good in melted form, I figured the 'Velveeta Shreds' was worth a shot.  I bought two bags, one bag of Mozzarella Shreds and one bag of Mexican mix.  Each bag weighed in at two pounds and Walmart had them priced at around $7.50 each.  At the time, I'm thinking, "Sweet, I've got a boatload of cheese, I can portion it out, use some for dinner tonight and stash the rest in the freezer!"

But there were three big red flags right there on the package that I completely ignored and shouldn't have.  For starters, and in bold print, it says "Mozzarella Flavor" right there on the front of the bag.  That's red flag #1.   It doesn't say "Real Mozzarella Cheese," it says, "Mozzarella Flavor."  OK, fine, the classic is "flavor" rather than the real stuff too, so no big deal right?   C'mon, it's Velveeta, it'll be good right? Well, combined with red flags #2 and #3, not so much.....   

After sampling the Mozzarella Shreds prepared on a pizza, I got a real mushy, pasty-like taste in my mouth.   I wasn't getting that wonderful combination of pepperoni, sauce and melted mozzarella, I was getting pepperoni, sauce and.....  starch?  So I picked up the package and read the ingredients after-the-fact......  And there it was, red flags #2 and #3 in the list of ingredients......  Modified food starch and wait for it.......  POTATO STARCH.   It doesn't matter that part-skim milk is the first listed ingredient, the potato starch ruins it.  Shreds are not something Velveeta should be proud of.  Who wants a mouthful of starch on their pepperoni?

You won't find the starches listed for the classic brick of Velveeta cheese.  The official list of Velveeta ingredients is as follows: Milk, Water, Whey, Milk Protein Concentrate, Milkfat, Whey Protein Concentrate, Sodium Phosphate, Contains 2% or less of: Salt, Calcium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Alginate, Enzymes, Apocarotenal, Annatto, Cheese Culture.

Kraft Foods apparently needs to add the modified food starch and the potato starch to get and hold the shredded cheese look.  Unfortunately, you can easily taste the starch.  It's an overdose.

I should have saved myself the trouble and read the list of ingredients at the grocery store.  But given how much I like classic brick Velveeta, I assumed the product would be good.  I was wrong.

BUY REAL SHREDDED CHEESE!

Velveeta Shreds suck.  Both the Mozzarella and the Mexican mix (tried with tacos) give you that starchy, pasty taste - the Mozzarella more so than the Mexican flavored shreds. 

I won't buy these products again.  Velveeta Shreds get one Metro Pursuit star out of five.

Kraft Foods

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