Salt some away? We've seen plenty of low-fat and reduced-fat cheese products over the years, but Mr. Tidbit doesn't recall (or maybe he has simply forgotten) seeing reduced-sodium cheese. In any case, it's here now, from Sargento, in several 25-percent-less-sodium varieties of shreds and slices and even string cheese.
Of course it costs more. Mr. Tidbit can't imagine why it should cost more; he's just saying that, like almost every new variation on an existing product in the supermarket, it costs more than the original.
As is often the case, the sticker prices for Sargento's reduced-sodium cheeses are the same as those for the comparable regular product, but the packages are smaller. The bag of shredded mild Cheddar, for example, contains 8 ounces; shredded reduced-sodium mild Cheddar comes in a 7-ounce bag. That's an extra 14 percent per ounce for leaving out some salt.
Mini cream cheese The folks at Kraft have a new cheese product, too. Have you been deeply troubled by your inability to tote around a comparatively small amount of cream cheese -- perhaps 11/4 ounces -- in its own little tublet, instead of having to lop off that 11/4 ounces from the regular 8-ounce block of cream cheese and maybe put it in a baggie or wrap it in some waxed paper?
(Mr. Tidbit will grudgingly concede that there might be some reason to want to do that in the first place; maybe you have lunchtime access to a toaster and a bagel but not a refrigerator where you could keep the 8-ounce package.)
Well, are you ever in luck! Now you can buy Philadelphia cream cheese (regular, strawberry, chive & onion and 1/3-less-fat regular) in four-packs of Philadelphia Minis.
Of course you will pay extra for this absurd convenience: At one discount supermarket, the regular 8-ounce package of Philadelphia cream cheese costs $1.99. So does the 5-ounce four-pack of Philadelphia Minis, so the Minis cost 37 percent more per ounce.
AL SICHERMAN
