Parmesan grated cheese could contain wood pulp

A new report from Bloomberg News shows that a block of Parmesan cheese in your kitchen may contain more than just dairy. There may be wood pulp in it.

Bloomberg tested store-bought grated cheeses for the anti-clumping agent cellulose and found 7.8 percent in Walmart's Great Value 100 percent grated Parmesan cheese. The amount of cellulose was 8.8 percent in Jewel-Osco's Essential Everyday 100 percent grated Parmesan cheese. The report also found 3.8 percent in the bottle of Kraft, which many people have in their fridge.

Walmart spokesman John Forrest Ales told Business Insider that repeated testing proved it met federal regulations for its standard of identity. "Even though using anti-caking aids is common across the industry and approved by the FDA, and testing a single sample is statistically unreliable, our compliance team is looking into these findings with the supplier," Ales said.

The companies add in the higher levels of cellulose when making cheese because it is cheaper than pure Parmesan.