View: The very cheesy business of passing off doosri cheez as asli cheese by brands
cheese. It's the secret weapon that can transform dull, mass-produced fare into edible delights. No wonder, it is there everywhere — as a filler nestled within burgers, as a flavourful dip accompanying side dishes, as an entity lathered in a dosa...
Recently, however, a cheesy kerfuffle erupted in Maharashtra after the state FDA cancelled the licence of a McDonald's outlet in Ahmednagar for using cheap vegetable oil instead of cheese in its products. A news report in this veritable paper stated that the FDA officials found that McCHEESE burgers, CHEESY nuggets, and CHEESY dips were actually — horror of horrors! — 'cheese flavoured'.
The regulator alleged that the company used cheese analogues, which replicate the taste and texture of real dairy cheese, without proper disclosure on labels or display boards, misleading consumers into thinking they were eating the real thing.
McDonald's lived up to its reputation of doing things double quick. It responded on X that it uses 'only real, quality cheese' in all their 'products containing cheese'. Well, there was one small problem in this explanation. News reports also noted that the company has written to FDA that it has renamed cheesy nuggets as 'veg nuggets', cheese veg burger as 'cheddar delight veg burger' and blueberry cheesecake as 'blueberry cake'. Talk about a sweet and quick makeover.
The McDonald's saga reminds me of another case. Some years ago, Amul initiated action against Unilever's Wall's range of frozen products because they were not pure milk-based and
