Vegan cheese

With the rise in veganism, the choice, quality and availability of vegan cheese has increased significantly in the last 10 years, and this is our first guide on the subject.

As more and more people turn to plant-based alternatives, partly in response to the role of animal farming in the climate crisis, the market has responded, showing the power of consumer demand.

In 2012, a vegan company based on the island of Bute in Scotland began making an own-brand block of vegan cheese for Tesco. They  now make it for all the supermarkets on this score table. Vegan cheese has gone mainstream.

Alongside supermarkets you can also find a much wider variety of vegan cheeses in wholefood and health food shops, and online. This includes a growing number of cultured vegan cheeses, made using traditional cheesemaking techniques and ripened for at least a few weeks. We’ve found that many of these are also made from organically grown ingredients which is even better news for the environment.

Ask an older vegan if they used blocks of vegan cheese 20 years ago and they would probably say when they did it was with hesitation. It simply wasn’t very good, or that widely available. You could buy shakers of Parmezano (a vegan alternative to Parmesan) or use Engevita flakes made from nutritional yeast (which are still available) to make a cheesy sauce or to shake onto pasta. Or you could grate a block of vegan cheese and mix it with vegan mayo for a cheesy spread.

Things have, thankfully, come a long way since.

Lower impact than dairy

As well as side-stepping the animal welfare concerns of dairy products (see our Dairy milk guide), plant based alternatives do, on average, have much lower environmental impacts than dairy in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water and land use. See our feature comparing the climate impacts of plant and dairy for more detail.

Ingredients

The first commercially available blocks of vegan cheese were processed from soya. These days most of the cheaper and more widely available brands are processed from coconut oil, probably largely to achieve a melting quality.

The cultured vegan cheeses tend to be more expensive than the processed kinds, partly because they are made from more expensive ingredients such as organic cashew nuts.

If you are cutting out dairy you should check you are still getting all the nutrients you need - there are many good resources for this including the NHS and Vegan Society websites. 

What are vegan cheeses made of?

Palm oil

The only brand which used palm oil in its vegan cheese blocks was Cheezly.

This palm oil was listed on the label as ‘sustainable’, which the company confirmed means it is certified by  the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and so received a middle rating. However, the RSPO has received numerous criticisms including a recent Greenpeace report which called it a con, so it certainly does not offer full reassurance. Cheezly do now also have a new range of ‘allergen-free’ vegan cheeses which do not contain palm oil.

Other company groups used palm oil in other products. Brands affected were Koko and Tofutti which received worst ratings due to lack of information, and Violife and Vitalite which received middle ratings. All the supermarkets received a middle rating except Ocado, which received a worst rating due to lack of information.

Workers’ rights

Two key ingredients of most vegan cheeses are coconut and cashew nuts.

Both are imported from countries in Asia and Africa, with poor workers’ rights legislation. Below we explain some of the issues associated with these raw materials.

Coconuts

Coconut farmers often live in extreme poverty, averaging about $1 a day throughout the year.

As trees age, poor farmers won’t always have the resources needed to replace them, or to pay for medical care or education for their families. Fair trade is one response, allowing farmers to earn a premium to invest in their communities, in projects such as healthcare, education, agricultural training or business development.

One company in this guide using fair trade coconut oil was Mouse’s Favourite.

Cashews

Cashew nuts are the seed of a fruit, and if the shells are split by hand without protection, the acids used can burn the skin, leading to severe pain and even permanent damage. The charity Traidcraft Exchange reported on this in 2013 after finding evidence in India, and stated in 2018 that they believed the situation was still the same.

Of the companies featured in this guide that use cashew nuts:

• Happy Cheeze stated that its supplier used machines for cracking the cashews.
• New Roots named its two suppliers, one of which discussed safe working conditions on its website, and the other was also fair trade and had a committee of elected worker representatives.
• Tyne Chease said the majority of its cashews were fair trade. Its supplier’s website stated that it carried out regular audits on ethical standards and working conditions.  
• Mouse’s Favourite said it relied on its wholesale supplier to make the necessary checks.

Supply chain management

Our Best Buy brands New Roots and Tyne Chease, and our recommended brand Sheese, were made by small independent companies in their own factories. They also discussed workers’ rights in their supply chains and received best ratings for supply chain management.

Those that did not have any or adequate information on workers’ rights received worst ratings. Brands affected were Cheezly, Green Vie, Happy Cashew (said it would have more information after visiting suppliers in March), Koko, Mouse’s Favourite, Mozzarisella, Tofutti, Violife and Vitalite.

Packaging

All processed vegan cheese is packaged in plastic. In some areas this may be recyclable. Local producers may use greaseproof paper.

Only the fermented cheese companies in this guide were found to discuss packaging on their websites, New Roots’ packaging being 100% recyclable, Mouse’s Favourite using some compostable material, Happy Cashew using returnable ice packs for mail orders, and Tyne Chease stating on social media that most of its packaging was compostable or recyclable.