Ah, yes. Easy Cheese. The delicious — but not at all nutritious — snack of every party. The cheese spread might taste good piled on top of Ritz crackers, pretzels, or chips and crisps, but is spray cheese actually made with real cheese, and should there be a disclaimer on the bottle?
What Is It?
This snack is a highly processed product from Mondelez International. It was first sold by Nabisco and is also called aerosol cheese.
You can get flavors like Easy Cheese Cheddar Cheese snack, Sharp Cheddar, Cheddar 'n Bacon, and American. Other varieties that no longer exist include Pimento, French Onion, Cheddar Blue Cheez, Shrimp Cocktail, Nacho, and Pizza.
What's in It?
The Cheddar flavor includes whey, canola oil, milk protein concentrate, cheddar cheese, and milk, making it actually an excellent source of calcium and protein with the whey protein concentrate. It also has less than 2 percent of sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, calcium phosphate, salt, lactic acid, milkfat, sodium alginate, sorbic acid as a preservative, sodium caseinate, acetic acid, color (annatto extract, apocarotenal), enzymes, and cheese culture.
Did you catch the possibly surprising inclusion on that list? Yes, technically this snack has cheese in it! But it's obviously not the type you'd expect, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks this spreadable snack is real.
In fact, Spoon University once broke down the ingredient list and came to a similar conclusion.
"What I realized from my search, however, isn't that the ingredients are super dangerous. Instead, the concoction is just filled with a huge amount of unnatural, processed, and completely unfamiliar ingredients," the author found.
So, yes, If you want to spread a bunch on tortilla chips and aren't worried about things like the total fat, dietary fiber, or carbohydrates involved or whether or not you're actually eating something real, go nuts! Cholesterol and trans fat aren't really something to worry about when you want to snack on something tasty, but don't be surprised if it doesn't exactly taste completely real.
Products featured on Wide Open Eats are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
