The Truth About What's Really In Powdered Cheese

One of the best "sometimes-treats" around is good old-fashioned boxed mac and cheese. You know the kind ... elbow noodles, mysterious powdered cheese, that glorious, neon orange color, and the cheap taste that brings you an immediate rush of comfort and serotonin — the same way it did when you were a child. The magic of powdered cheese doesn't stop there: Cheetos or CheeWees (for any reader who's ever had the pleasure of visiting New Orleans), white cheddar popcorn, crackers, and Doritos all wear powdered cheese quite well.

That being said, none of these cheese-covered treats sound terribly good for you, do they? We know all of them to be highly processed and lacking in nutritional value, so it's no wonder that powdered cheese is assumed to be a chemical-packed mess that we just try not to think too much about. But, what is really in powdered cheese, and is it as unhealthy as it seems?

The most common way to make powdered cheese is through a process called spray drying. First, the cheese is melted down to a liquid. The liquid cheese is then sprayed through a nozzle, creating a fine mist. The mist is dehydrated using high heat, and what's left are particles of powdered cheese (per USA Emergency Supply).

Of course, the powdered cheese that covers many of our snacks isn't the healthiest version of the stuff. Oftentimes, it's packed with additives like dyes, artificial flavors, and loads of sodium. In fact, some brands use more whey — a byproduct of cheese — than real cheese, according to HuffPost. These days, though, it's not difficult to find a pretty solid (pun intended) powdered cheese that sticks to just a few real ingredients. You can go ahead and add it to your homemade veggies, chicken fry, or popcorn without worrying about the health consequences.

Cheese lovers may be wondering why on earth you would compromise an already perfect product like cheese. However, the fact of the matter is that cheese is expensive and has a fairly short shelf life. To that point, Anthony Bourdain wrote in "Medium Raw," "Cheese is expensive. Very expensive. And perishable. And delicate. Every time you cut into an intact cheese, its time on this earth becomes limited. Every time you pull one out of the special refrigerated cave it lives in, you are killing it slowly." 

However, powdered cheese (depending on what it's packaged in and how it's stored) can remain edible for 1-15 years, per Legacy Food Storage. With that, powdered cheese presents an opportunity for restaurateurs to stock up without as much financial risk. That also means that if you want to keep some on hand at home, it's less of splurge for you and more of a long term investment.

So there you have it!  Powdered cheese exists so we can have cheese longer, and looking at the label didn't turn out to be as scary as you may have thought.