This Nostalgic Frozen Pizza Brand Is No Stranger To 'Imitation Cheese' Controversy

Among the cases in the freezer aisle, there may be no pizza more nostalgic than Totino's. The brand's Pizza Rolls and Party Pizzas are often a reminder of a simpler time, when the relatively low quality was balanced out by the equally low price. Unfortunately for fans, however, Totino's is once again in the spotlight for allegedly making these products not with real mozzarella, as consumers expect, but with some sort of artificial cheese substitute.

Across social media, Totino's eaters are expressing both shock and outrage upon learning that the bargain-bin frozen pizzas they've been buying for under $2 may not feature real cheese at all. Videos are circulating on platforms like Instagram with fear-mongering voice-overs attempting to link the titanium dioxide in this artificial cheese to cancer. By now, every savvy internet user should know better than to trust social media posts without verification. That said, there is some truth to this story, but it is also a bit less scary than some users online are making it out to be.

The ingredient lists for both Totino's Party Pizzas and Pizza Rolls do indeed feature an ingredient called "imitation mozzarella cheese," as well as "rehydrated" mozzarella cheese. The ingredients for the former include water, vegetable oil, potato starch, modified food starch, rennet casein, gelatin, and modified whey. The products also contain less than 2% of ingredients such as, you guessed it, titanium dioxide, which is used for the artificial coloring.

Many of the social media videos circulating have somewhat of a basis in fact. The products do use imitation mozzarella, and that fake cheese does contain gelatin and a small amount of titanium dioxide. Excluding the gelatin and rennet, though, this list is not too dissimilar to some vegan cheese alternatives on the market, with the bulk of it being made up of oils, starches, flavorings, and preservatives.

As for the use of titanium dioxide, that is somewhat controversial. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers titanium oxide to be a safe food dye up to 1% of the weight of the product. In the European Union (EU), titanium dioxide was banned for consumption in 2022. Just as some customers are still coming to terms with the fact that Totino's pizzas changed shape to save the company a few pennies per pie, so too is this imitation mozzarella debacle still ruffling feathers. It is not, however, new.

Back in 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company for false advertising. The suit alleged that using imitation cheese meant that the product should not be called pizza. Unfortunately for pizza purists, the case was thrown out in early 2023. The judge determined that the definition of pizza does not mandate that the product be made with dairy-based cheese.

Consumer anger about the somewhat misleading marketing is understandable. This controversy proves a powerful reminder that, in the modern industrial food system, it is important to read the ingredient list. Totino's grew to dominate the frozen pizza market not through making the best pizzas, just the cheapest. Apparently, that cutthroat business sometimes means skimping basic ingredients like actual cheese.