August 13, 2025 | Health Prepping: So Now Cheese Is Poison?

When Big Pharma and Big Food collaborate, the result is frequently creepy.

The following X post claims that American cheese is made with genetically engineered black mold (!), among other things, and labels aren’t required to show it:

Valerie Anne Smith @ValerieAnne1970

Because Of Pfizer, 90% Of US Cheese Is Made Using GMO Corn & Black Mold, CRISPR Cow Gene Editing.

This Bioengineered Rennet Requires No Special Labeling & No Ingredient Disclosure.

A. Niger Black Mold Is A Severe Allergen & The Only ‘Safety Study’ Was Done On Rats For 90 Days.

Traditional cheese manufacturing, using animal rennet, accounts for less than 10% of cheese in the United States as of 2025.

Pfizer created genetically modified FPC, which is Fermentation Produced Chymosin as a cheap rennet for cheese production.

GMO corn is fermented in large tanks using Aspergillus Niger black mold, which is then inserted into a cow or camel gene using bioengineered CRISPR gene editing, resulting in a GMO synthetic chymosin rennet FPC.

In 1990, the US FDA, going off of the prior US Supreme Court decision to allow ‘new life forms to be patented’, granted approval for the very 1st CRISPR gene edited GMO bioengineered product GMO microbial Chymosin rennet FPC.

This bioengineered FPC was granted GRAS status. This means that Pfizer was exempt from pre-market review & safety testing.

GRAS Generally Recognized As Safe substances do not require approval or notification to the US FDA prior to marketing.

Pfizer sold the rights to the patented formula in 1996 to several companies who use the same ‘recipe’ of CRISPR gene editing & bioengineered fermentation of A. Niger black mold & GMO corn, inserted into cow or camel genes.

One of the largest is Christian Hansen who Makes Chy-Max & has merged with a biotech pharmaceutical company Novozymes Novonesis to be the leading producer of US GMO FPC cheese rennet, accounting for more than 90% of US cheese.

The only ‘safety study’ was done by the European Union in 2022, using rats injected with GMO FPC Fermentation Produced Chymosin rennet, while monitoring the rats behavior for only 90 days.

Because of US FDA lack of labeling laws…this GMO black mold FPC CRISPR gene edited rennet can be in the ingredient list as:

Microbial Rennet
Vegetable Rennet
Chymosin Rennet
FPC Rennet
Fermentation Rennet
Proprietary Fermented Rennet
Microbial Enzymes
Fermentation Produced Rennet

Basically, it can be labeled as anything, the US FDA does not require cheese manufacturers to declare the source of their rennet.

Even Kosher & Halal use FPC Chymosin in their labeled cheese products.

Besides the fact that this is a dangerous genetically modified product in our food…Aspergillus Niger black mold is classified as a severe allergen. Many people have very strong illness reactions to it, as it is also used in the making of citric acid & ascorbic acid.

Allergic & illness symptoms occur very frequently citing headache, allergic rhinitis, GI distress, gut permeability, diarrhea & other inflammatory responses that are mistakenly assumed to be dairy intolerance, when in fact, it is a reaction to the A. Niger FPC GMO rennet.

Small amounts of A. Niger cytokine proteins into our bodies on a regular basis, elicit a low grade immune response.

With the repetitive exposure & insult, the immune system maintains a low grade inflammatory response. Over time, the chronic inflammatory state will build & impact various systems in the body.

2 Ways To Avoid GMO FPC CRISPR Cheese Rennet:

Animal Rennet: Seek out grocery store brands that list ANIMAL RENNET in the ingredient list. Purchase from local farmers & farmer’s markets who use traditional cheese making procedures using ANIMAL RENNET in their aged, raw & A2 cheeses. Animal rennet is safe.

Certified Organic: US Certified Organic has strict adherence laws & forbids any genetically modified or bioengineered ingredients within the certified organic realm of products. There will be not be any cheese labeled ‘US Certified Organic’ that contains the GMO fermented A. Niger black mold, cow gene edited FPC rennet. Certified Organic is safe.

CRISPR Technology In Dairy Industry
https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924224421006701

EU Study: FPC Rennet On Rats For 90 Days
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9347238/

Recombinant DNA Food Enzymes Cause Allergy
https://who.int/docs/default-source/food-safety/final-enzyme-report-1-3-f-draft-nov-2019e4cf41981c82443bb2c5496a9adda8c4.pdf?sfvrsn=8651b8a5_4

Should We Finish Off the Cheese In the Fridge or Toss It?

There’s a block of Irish cheese in my fridge, and the ingredients list is ambiguous. So I asked an AI “Does Irish Cheese Have GMO Black Mold?” Here’s what it said:

Irish cheese is not produced using GMO black mold. The rennet used in most cheese production, including in Ireland, is often fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC), which is created by genetically modifying microorganisms like bacteria or yeast to produce the enzyme chymosin. However, the final enzyme product does not contain the modified DNA or the original GMO organism; it is a pure protein. While the microorganisms used in the production process are genetically modified, the resulting rennet is not considered a GMO product by regulatory bodies like the FDA and EU, as the modified DNA is not present in the final cheese. The molds used for aging certain cheeses, such as blue cheese, are different from the microbes used to produce rennet and are not typically genetically modified in Europe, including Ireland. Therefore, the claim that Irish cheese is made with GMO black mold is inaccurate.

That first sentence was promising, but the rest of the answer is impenetrable. So the fate of the Irish cheese remains uncertain.

John Rubino August 13th, 2025

Posted In: John Rubino Substack

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