Cheese or Not? An Analysis of the Chemical Cheese Conglomerate known as Easy Cheese

Kate L. Guillemette and Emily A. Longano University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Chemistry 314W Spring 2014

   

Ingredients NMR analysis was used to compare the fat composition of Easy Cheese and Kroger brand cheddar cheese. The cheeses were extracted by the Weibull-Stodlt method of fat hydrolysis and a Soxhlet extraction by petroleum ether.

A portion of the Easy Cheese metal can was dissolved in hydrochloric acid, diluted, and analyzed for trace metals using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The Easy Cheese can composition was also analyzed by handheld x-ray fluorescence (XRF). The thickness of the can was determined through scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

The can is primarily composed of aluminum. The thickness of the can was determined to be 453 + 3 µm.

Introduction

Plastics Analysis of the polymer composition of the Easy Cheese container’s outer plastic cap, spray nozzle, and inner plastic lining was conducting using a Nicolet 6700 Fourier Transform-Infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). The resulting spectra were compared to reference spectra from literature and the instrument’s library.

Colors Annatto, a common food colorant, is a listed ingredient in Easy Cheese. Raw annatto seeds and Easy Cheese were extracted in 5% potassium hydroxide and analyzed on a Perkin-Elmer Lambda 900 Ultraviolet Visible spectrometer. The resulting spectra were compared to determine if annatto is the main colorant in Easy Cheese.

The UV-Vis signature of annatto was not detected in the Easy Cheese spectrum.

Metals

Two compounds were elucidated from the NMR spectra: linoleic acid and tristearin. Linoleic acid is a component of canola oil which is an ingredient of Easy Cheese. Side by side comparison of Easy Cheese and genuine cheddar cheese spectra revealed that they are not chemically equivalent.

Component Polymer Percent Match

Outer plastic cap

Linear low density

polyethylene 92.60%

Spray nozzle

Atactic polypropylene

with a plasticizer

78.71%

Inner plastic lining

Atactic polypropylene 92.77%

Elements Detected Weight % Method of Detection

Aluminum - SEM Bismuth (3.2 ± 0.6) x 10-4 ICP-MS

Iron 0.13 ± 0.01 XRF & ICP-MS Lead (1.3 ± 0.07) x 10-3 ICP-MS

Tantalum 0.02 ± 0 XRF & ICP-MS Tin (5.0 ± 1) x 10-5 ICP-MS

Titanium 9.7 ± 0.2 XRF & ICP-MS Zirconium ( 4.4x ± 4) x 10-5 XRF & ICP-MS

Wyman, Carolyn. Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods that Changed the Way We Eat. Quirk Books, 2004.

References

Easy Cheese, a cheese substitute, was designed to give consumers an effortless way to design and enjoy their own creative cheese snacking creations. It was created by Nabisco in the 1960’s to provide a way for hostesses across the country to create beautiful cheese decorations.

Originally marketed as Snack Mate, this product allows snackers to achieve the perfect cheese-to-cracker ratio. The goal of this study was identify and quantify the plastics, metals, flavors, and colors in the Easy Cheese product using the following techniques: FT-IR, XRF, ICP-MS, SEM, HPLC, NMR, and UV-Vis analysis.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank Dr. Sarah Hayes and Erin Gleason for their assistance throughout the semester, Dr. Carl Murphy for his NMR expertise, Karen Speleta for her ICP-MS expertise, Nicole Knight for her help operating the SEM, and Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory for providing access to their instrumentation.  

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

300 350 400 450 500 550 600

Ab

sorb

ance

Wavelength (nm)

Annatto

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

300 350 400 450 500 550 600

Ab

sorb

ance

Wavelength (nm)

Easy Cheese

SEM image of the Easy Cheese container at 40X magnification