Is That Real Cheese On Those Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwiches?

Jimmy Dean sandwiches are a lifesaver in the morning, a way to get a hot breakfast without the effort of cooking or waiting in a fast-food line. They're not meant to be gourmet. Instead, they're an easy way to get a filling meal made with foods we all can pronounce — meat, biscuits, and eggs, all tied together with a slice of ooey-gooey cheese. But whether that cheese is actually real depends on what you consider to be "real cheese." Jimmy Dean uses American cheese on its breakfast sandwiches — a type of yellow cheese that the FDA calls "Pasteurized Process American Cheese," and one that contains a little more than just cheese in the recipe.

Just like the eggs on the Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, American cheese is a blended product, typically containing two or more specific cheese types along with added ingredients like emulsifiers to give it a great texture. Some say you should avoid buying synthetic, heavily processed, shelf-stable cheese products that look like food but are mostly made of additives. But American cheese is popular for a reason. It's the most meltable cheese out there, making it a go-to for the grill, ham and cheese sandwiches, and gooey cheese dips.

American cheese is based on cheese — four to be exact: cheddar cheese, Colby cheese, washed curd cheese, and granular cheese. It's made by melting together different cheeses with milk until they are liquid, then emulsifiers are added to create American cheese's iconic smooth texture. Then it's poured into a mold, cooled, and packaged. It's made along the same lines as a hot dog: It's processed, some would say heavily so, a hodge-podge of cheeses held together with emulsifiers — but all cheese is processed to some degree.

The FDA strictly regulates the use of emulsifiers to ensure they're safe, and American cheese isn't the only kind of cheese that contains them, along with additives and preservatives. Most bags of shredded cheese at the store contain emulsifiers, and so do most of the soft cheeses you'll find on the shelves, such as cream cheese. So, whether you judge the American cheese on Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches to be real or not entirely depends on where you draw the line with cheese additives.