Now, he discovered, not only was cheese no longer prominently listed as an ingredient, it wasn’t listed at all. Real cheese gave it class and legitimacy, Southworth said, not to mention flavor. From its earliest days, Cheez Whiz always contained real cheese. One crucial ingredient was missing, however. There were 27 items listed in all, starting with the watery by-product of milk called whey, taking him through canola oil, corn syrup, and an additive called milk protein concentrate, which manufacturers had begun importing from other countries as a cost-cutting alternative to the higher-priced powdered milk produced by American dairies. Staring at the label, parsing the list of ingredients, he eventually found the culprit, though not without some effort. Nonetheless, in his kitchen that day, Southworth knew that something had changed. Upon its release on July 1, 1953, the advertising emphasized its expediency, not its taste: “Cheese treats QUICK. In the laboratories at Kraft, in fact, Cheez Whiz had been designed to have the mildest flavor possible for the broadest public appeal.

But it hadn’t pretended, even wanted to be. Article contentĪs for its taste, Southworth conceded that the spread had never been in the same league as a fine English Stilton.

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Cheez whiz jar