Apparently, eastern New Mexico is home to one of the largest factory co-op dairy operations in the States, turning out blocks of rubber cheese similar to Velveeta, and other products. It's called Southwest Cheese Company, ( sounds almost quaint, with wooden hand churns and Daisy chewing her cud and peering through the window,) and it's in Clovis. It supposedly produces over 250 million pounds of "American cheese."
Back in the ancient days of my childhood, Velveeta was eaten in other homes, not ours. So when I was at a friend's place, I occasionally stuck my fingers in the Velveeta, amazed at its un-cheeselike consistency and its almost melted-before-melting quality.
A quick Google of Velveeta reveals that in 1928 Kraft Foods itself described V as not quite cheese. This text is taken from the company website.
" After several years of research on the nutri tive value of whey - a by - product of cheese making - Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corporation introduces Velveeta© pasteurized process cheese food in the United States and Canada in a half-pound package."
It's a "cheese food." Huh?
Back in February of 2000 Steve Ritter was wondering the same thing--he had been musing on Cheez ( Why Johnny Can't Spell) Whiz, another Kraft product. Here's what he found out, after trial and error:
"Pasteurized process cheese, for example, is made from one or more cheeses, such as cheddar or colby, and may have cream or anhydrous milkfat added. The cheese is blended and heated with an emulsifier—typically a sodium or potassium phosphate, tartrate, or citrate—and other optional ingredients such as water, salt, artificial color, and spices or other flavorings.
Pasteurized process cheese food is a variation of process cheese that may have dry milk, whey solids, or anhydrous milkfat added, which reduces the amount of cheese in the finished product. It must contain at least 51% of the cheese ingredient by weight, have a moisture content less than 44%, and have at least 23% milkfat."
So cheese food is something edible, and contains at least half of what it purports to be.
I won't go into the whole feedlot, cows jowl to jowl who never see pasture, old milkers get axed and are shipped to McDonald's thing here. You know all that anyway.