Why You Won't Find Velveeta In The Refrigerated Aisle

Some grocery stores stock their bricks of Velveeta in the refrigerated aisle, alongside cheese blocks and bags of shredded fromage. At other grocery retailers, the Velveeta might be stashed in the canned aisle beside tins of stewed tomatoes and jarred pasta sauces. Both spots work just as well. Velveeta doesn't need to be refrigerated at all, because it's processed. Surprising probably no one, Velveeta isn't technically cheese at all. Although, it's worth mentioning that Velveeta does require refrigeration once the package has been opened to stay fresh.

The ingredient is best known as the "cheese" in mac and cheese, or as the "queso" in chip dips like this chorizo queso blanco. Yet, a closer look at Velveeta's packaging reveals phrases like "Melts better and 50% less fat than cheddar cheese" and "pasteurized recipe cheese product" — both of which are to say that Velveeta itself is not cheese. Back in 2002, parent company Kraft caught a slap on the wrist from the FDA for selling packages of Velveeta labelled as "pasteurized process cheese spread." The product has worn its current moniker ever since. Still, some types of cheese, like low-moisture hard cheeses (i.e., aged cheddar, Parmesan), don't need to be refrigerated to retain their quality. According to the USDA, "pasteurized cheeses" like American cheese don't require refrigerating, either. This posits the important question of, "What counts as cheese?"

Cheese consists primarily of cheese curd (naturally coagulated milk, or the solids left behind when the milk's liquid whey is released). The National Dairy Council defines "cheese" as a product that is made from a base of four ingredients: milk, salt, starter culture bacteria, and the coagulant enzyme rennet. These four ingredients are then manipulated to create different types of cheese. Harvard's School of Public Health shortens this list even further to milk, culture, and coagulant, omitting salt.

Velveeta contains many of the same ingredients used to make cheese, including milk and cultures. But, its assembly doesn't end there. According to the official Kraft-Heinz Velveeta website (which takes care to describe the product as a "cheese block" rather than simply as "cheese"), Velveeta's ingredients list includes skim milk, milk protein concentrate, milkfat, canola oil, sodium phosphate, calcium phosphate, whey, lactic acid, salt, and a few other trace elements. In short, it's a blend of pasteurized milk, plus whey, salt, and textural emulsifiers — a formula which also grants Velveeta ultra-strong preservation, springy-gooey meltability, and shelf stability. Alas, FDA regulations dictate that "cheese" must contain at least 51% actual cheese. Velveeta may be a dairy product, but it's processed beyond its own cheesehood — and because of all that processing, Velveeta remains food-safe at room temperature. Don't trip if you spy it in the canned food aisle at the supermarket.