[SpicyLemonZest]

String cheese is another great example. Most people would identify it as a clear example of "fake food", but it's literally just mozzarella stretched in a particular way.

I have no objection to nuance and subjectivity. There's nothing wrong with someone saying "I like fresh salads and fish and tofu, but string cheese and Big Macs aren't for me". Certainly I wouldn't say that you must eat string cheese unless you have an ironclad reason to avoid it. What I object to (and what I think HN is particularly sensitive to) is trying to sneak personal preferences under the guise of loaded terms like "real food".

[squish78]

Then I guess I'm guilty sneaking my personal preferences. I wanted to have a conversation about the industrial food supply and failed to ask the right questions

[namdnay]

The ingredients for mozzarella are: buffalo milk, salt and rennet (and a bit of leftover whey for the bacteria). I’m sure there is far more in a packet of “cheese strings” than that

[NikolaeVarius]

Lets test the claim out.

https://www.frigocheeseheads.com/en/products/everyday-snacki...

> INGREDIENTS: Low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized part skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Mozzarella-String-Che...

> Ingredients: Pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes

https://www.sargento.com/our-cheese/string-stick/string-chee...

> Pasteurized Reduced Fat Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes, Vitamin A Palmitate.

Nope, not checking out

[namdnay]

I guess it depends on the brands: https://www.cheestrings.ca/en/products.html

[paulcole]

To be fair, they listed 3 ingredients and the ones you listed have 4-5. That’s an increase of 33-66%.

[refurb]

That’s not a fair assessment at all. The grandparent made a claim and was proven to be clearly wrong.

[TheCoelacanth]

rennet = enzymes and the original list left out cultures, but there are undoubtedly cultures in their cheese, so the only difference in the lists is presentation.