Why American Cheese Has Unique FDA Guidelines

From an All-American cheeseburger to a gooey grilled cheese sandwich, American cheese can be found in a ton of different recipes — although opinions are split on whether or not it is as tasty as it looks. Love it or hate it, there is one thing about American cheese we should all know: it's not actually cheese. Technically speaking, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not classify American cheese as a traditional cheese product.

While it is a rather "cheesy" technicality, American cheese still abides by specific regulations that keep the product stable and safe for consumers, including limitations on the amount of moisture and fat content present. Mold-inhibiting ingredients, such as sorbic acid, and anti-sticking agents, known as lecithins, must not exceed a specific percentage in each slice of American cheese.

It is also a requirement that American cheese products do not call themselves "cheese" when marketing to consumers. If you look closely enough at the label on your Kraft Singles, for example, you'll notice that the label reads, "pasteurized processed cheese food." This is done for legal reasons. To the FDA, a cheese product must contain at least 51% cheese curds — American cheese falls below that requirement. Instead, it contains ingredients like whey, milk proteins, various emulsifiers, and other additives that are safe to eat but dilute the amount of actual cheese present in the product.

American cheese may not meet the legal definition of cheese, but there are still plenty of reasons to appreciate this pasteurized processed cheese food. For starters, it has an extremely low melting point, resulting in those mouth-watering cheese pulls. It is also high in calcium and protein. Plus, it remains safe to eat far longer than most other cheese products.

American cheese can be found in many dishes that define American cuisine, but the product we recognize today actually originated in Switzerland. The first cheese products that were processed in this way were invented by Swiss residents Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler in 1911. It consisted of shredded Emmentaler cheese (a type of Swiss cheese) that was heated with sodium citrate and cooled until it solidified as a new form of cheese. Inspired by this discovery, J.L. Kraft attempted a similar method while looking for a way to create a product with a longer shelf life and use the cheddar cheese products he had lying around. American cheese was later patented by the founder of Kraft in 1916.

To this day, American cheese is often formed using a mixture of other cheeses like cheddar or Colby Jack combined with an emulsifying agent to form the single slices of elastic cheese ... or, cheese-like product.