Flour In Grated Cheese!

[gatita]

Dang, another unexpected source of gluten.

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant while traveling here in California and the waiter told me their grated cheese is dusted with flour to keep it from sticking together!

So now that's one more thing to ask about.

(Although the waiter was very helpful I got glutened anyway, probably something in the seasoning on the chicken.)

Sheesh, I'm through with restaurants (for now, anyway)!

[kareng]

That isn't a normal thing to do to grated cheese. Wheat flour is sticky when damp and would cause the cheese to melt into a sauce like constancy. Which might be what they hoped to achieve. I have used flour to thicken melted cheese into sauce.

[shadowicewolf]

Or they put a type of sand in the packaged ones in the store.

[bartfull]

Most of the ones in the store have corn starch.

[kittty]

You could ask them to substitute crumbled queso fresco the next time, just in case.

[gatita]

You could ask them to substitute crumbled queso fresco the next time, just in case.

Good idea, thanks!

[Pauliewog]

What restaurant was it? I am going to CA in Dec. and I LOVE Mexican!

[Lisa]

Just to make that matter more confusing....I was wondering if the waiter was confusing the dusted material as cellulose (a common ingredient to prevent cheese from sticking - non gluten related)

Kraft lists cellulose as a non-caking ingredient in their grated cheeses.

[psawyer]

I have never seen wheat flour or corn starch listed as an anti-caking agent. As Lisa said, Kraft use cellulose (gluten-free) as do many others. Some are just grated cheese--they can stick together.

The whole idea of flour as an anti-stick agent is over the top. When moist, wheat flour acts as an adhesive. That is where all the envelope myths come from. Wheat flour just would not work as an anti-caking agent. It would do the opposite.

[Juliebove]

I have heard this flour thing before but I have never seen wheat flour in cheese. I think the kind we have has potato starch or something like that in it. I argued with my mom that it was just cheese, but it isn't. But it also isn't flour. I suppose people might get the idea because it sometimes looks like flour. Perhaps the next time you could ask to see the package?

[Roda]

It would have to be labled by law if it had wheat in it.

[gatita]

Thanks for the input.

Maybe it was just cellulose... I sure hope it wasn't wheat flour, but when a waiter/owner tells me that, I'm certainly not going to take the chance!

He specifically said "wheat" (I speak Spanish and he said "trigo," the word for wheat) but he didn't make it clear whether the cheese came with this "flour" on it or if they applied it themselves.

Pauliewog, I think the name was Don Perico or something like that. It was in the middle of freakin' nowhere, along Interstate 5 in Grapevine, which is basically a truck stop between Bakersfield and LA.