Cheese Strings - why not?

[SniffyHock]

I am fairly strict with food (only buy good quality, lots of organic, in season etc. etc.) Since starting school DS has asked for Cheese Strings when he's seen them at the shop and I've always refused. We've talked about things being natural v/s processed.

He went to waitrose with DH yesterday and came back chuffed to bits as they had bought cheese strings - I was a bit cross but DH protested that he had read the label and said they haven't got any e-numbers etc in them. The packet describes the process as like mozzerella

Can someone who knows more about it please enlighten me - are they actually okay because my instinct is 'Noooooo!!!'

for me why not:
Cost.
Unnecessary packaging.
Processing.
Very little nutritional value.

But I suppose the odd one here and there doesn't do any harm as part of a balanced diet.

BTW, I also wouldn't give mozzerzlla as a snack, only eat it very occasionally on pizzas.

All my DC's love them.My mum says they are awful,supposed to be high in salt,although can't see it myself.

I just googled cheese strings to see what is in them and funnily enough mumsnet featured in the results! See here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/4/319437

Personally I love cheesestrings and am sure I will allow DS them occasionally when he is older.

I have just looked at the packet again and all it says is 100% cheese - no added salt. They also claim to have the equivalent of calcium from one glass of milk (mine drink loads so not a problem).

I fear that maybe I am just being snobby...

Mine have them sometimes - normally if they are on offer because they are very pricey for what they are. The dairylea strip cheese is nice too. My DS's will get them maybe once a week - or baby bels! There is a lot of snobbery around them, but as long as though they have a good diet otherwise...what's the harm?

For me its the cost, my kids love cheese strings and i love don't mind them as a secret pleasure.

But i don't buy them often at all as they are very expensive.

We are a huge chhesy family and the kids and myself love babybells, strip cheese but it is the cost, i find it cheeper just to buy a block of cheese and cut little cubes off for them.

mine beg for them because all their friends have them, and then when i buy them, they don't eat them as they are rubbery and tasteless.
every couple of months i give in and buy another packet. and they take one bite and remember why i refuse to buy them every week.
i don't care what's in them tbh, they are truly revolting.
they do like fruitshoots though although in my defence i've never purchased a greggs sausage roll so am unable to comment in that department...

My only big concern about cheese strings is the high sodium content (from the emulsifiers used to make them). In practise, that means that I limit DC to a max one/day, usually just school days.

Kids love $s because of the gimmick aspect; lunch is the highlight of their day.

To a much lesser extent I also don't like

• the excess packaging (but DC won't eat chunks of cheese chopped by me).
• Cost, but DC eat so little, and the lunch as a whole costs less than £1.

DD has one in her lunch box daily, currently.

thanks for all the comments - maybe I should have searched mumsnet before posting!

I think it's interesting that maybe I've been guilty of pure snobbery about them - reading the other threads that Libra linked to, they are no worse, nutrition wise, than many other cheeses. Just highly marketed and over-packaged. I think I need to chill out sometimes and not be so blardy middle-class !!
To be fair, DS said he liked it but hasn't asked for another yet, DD said 'yuck'! (But then she said the same about my lovely chicken casserole!!)

well I bought some cheese strings today at the shop for DS3 - DH has discovered that while he'll turn his nose up at any cubes of cheese cut off a block he'll devour an entire cheese string with no problems

My DS's also drink fruit shoots.............and I once (last year) sat in the shopping centre outside the 99p shop with them drinking fruit shoots and eating Gregg's sausage rolls

I think of them in the same way as individual cartons of innocent smoothies, the stuff inside is ok but the £££ and packaging is a bit unnecessary - only the smoothies don't come with the same bizarre snob factor against them

(but both made their way into my daughter's lunch box this morning)

mine don't like innocent smoothies either... ho hum. they were heavily indoctrinated by a nanny we had that 'home made is best'...

until we pass pizza hut, natch... or a sweet shop...

and can anyone tell me what is wrong with Dairylea? Love this and seems to be pretty good ingredients (cheese, milk, butter?) Good source of calcium and lower in salt than straight cheese I would have thought? dd loves it too!

I don't know eeky - I've always avoided them for my DC yet I loved them as a child!

i always thought that cheese strings were processed cheese, like that odd square burger cheese.

i know that to make one pound of prosessed cheese, it needs 2 lbs of salt.................

i will read the label closely nxt week.

It depends on the brand. Cheestrings are 100% cheese and, as far as the label is concerned, have no nasties in. Other brands have all sorts of gunk added. However, it depends on tehe definition of 'cheese' - perhaps cheese itself can have flavourings/preservatives? I've tried to find out but been unable. Anyway, this is the only brand I will buy.

It's cheese,like Dairylea.
I onjecto n grounds that I disapprove of food being madei nto a novelty.The fact that it is food should (and is) good enough for me.
I don't need to 'sell' it more than this.

Also cost a fucking fortune.Why pay for wrapping plastic?

Cheesestrings just seem soooooooo wrong.

Every now and again DD begs us to buy Cheesestrings but we always say no as we don't tend to buy overly processed/overly packaged products like that.

Both DC love cheese especially Camembert or Brie which have much more flavour and texture so I don't see the need to introduce cheesestrings .

I have to admit to buying Babybels sometimes though.

Oh God all my DC's love cheesestrings.

Infact DS showed me the other day that he can make palm trees out of them! It's amazing what they teach at nursery now. No really it was very impressive.

I am the biggest cheese snob in the world (used to work in a shop selling artisan british and irish cheeses) and thought they were the work of the devil, second only to prawn primula, but after reading up about them and scrutinising the label I have relented and buy them for my DC. Yes, they are a novelty and yes, they are expensive, but DS isn't one for drinking milk and it's one way I can get calcium into him. They don't actually taste that bad and they have less salt in them than the block cheddar that we buy for sarnies etc. I hadn't thought about all the unneccesary packaging though!

they also keep him occupied (and quiet!!) for ten minutes whilst he peels them into teeny strips to eat.....and I find there is somehting quite cathartic about stripping and eating them myself

They have changed from a couple of tears ago! they used to be much more stringy (read processed) i loved them so much, i bought a pack (for me) recently not as nice as i remember!!