Is your Cheese wrapper choking you? We find out, Kraftily.

It isn’t a good day for cheese especially the Kraft-y kind. After receiving three incidents of choking on the tiny bit of plastic left back on their cheese, Kraft has recalled 36,000 cases of its individually wrapped cheese. 

What is individually wrapped cheese?

You know, those single slices of cheese that are oh-so-perfect for that midnight grilled cheese sandwich. Well, Kraft has been a long time favourite but this incident has us on the fence. 

What has Kraft done? 

Let’s not rush to jump the gun here. Kraft has done the responsible thing and recalled 36,000 of their products. The recall extends to 3- and 4-lb. sizes of Kraft Singles American and White American cheese products shipped to retailers in the US, Puerto Rico, and Grand Cayman. The defective products can be identified by looking at the “best when used by” dates, followed by manufacturing codes. Any Singles dated December 29, 2015 through January 4, 2016, followed by manufacturing codes S54 or S55, are subject to the recall.

Why do they have extended expiring dates? 

Such far-off-into-the-future usage dates are possible because Kraft Singles aren’t technically cheese. They were specifically developed with the purpose of having a shelf-life much longer than standard cheese.

Is it really cheese? 

Well, according to FDA standards which calls for at least 51% cheese in any processed cheese food—it can’t call itself “cheese.” According to Melanie Warner, company founder James Lewis Kraft invented what we now know as American cheese by killing the mold-causing bacteria in cheddar cheese through sterilization and then putting the pieces back together again in a cheese-like form.

Well if it looks like cheese and tastes like cheese, it has to be cheese, right?