Vegan cheese

A growing number of people have switched to plant milks, for some or all of their milk intake, but fewer people seem to have moved over to vegan cheese.

But vegan cheese is an important market, not least for vegans and lactose intolerant people, and several multinational dairy companies have acquired vegan cheese brands to tap into the vegan market. 

In this guide, we review how ethical vegan cheese is, what it's made from, and if it has a lower environmental impact than dairy cheese. We also look at price and packaging of vegan cheese.

Which vegan cheese brands are in this guide?

We have included a range of the vegan cheeses available in the UK, from big multinational names like Cathedral City and other popular dairy brands like Applewood and Babybel who have made vegan versions of their dairy cheeses, to small artisanal independent cheeses and vegan manufacturers. 

We have not included supermarket own-brands in the score table, but you can check out the latest supermarket shopping guide to see how they rate. 

It will probably come as no surprise to find out that some brands scored nearly full marks, whereas others failed to impress in any of our rating categories. 

Despite that, if you are looking for an ethical vegan cheese, there are plenty of options. Even one from a dairy-owning company which scores poorly will have fewer negative environmental and ethical impacts, as we discuss later. 

What is happening in the vegan cheese market?

Vegetarians love their cheese. A 2017 study found that, on average, vegetarians eat almost twice as much cheese as meat-eaters, and it is often a stumbling block for aspiring vegans.

Vegan cheese is an outlier in the world of palatable plant based alternatives. Many people now prefer the taste of plant milk over dairy and can barely distinguish a chicken nugget from its plant based counterpart. But can we say the same for vegan cheese?

Recent advances in food technology are certainly improving things. Today’s vegan cheeses are coming closer to capturing the creamy texture of traditional dairy cheese. Better fermentation processes emphasise the tanginess familiar to aged dairy cheeses, while enzyme technology breaks down protein and fat to emulate classic cheese flavours.

A plant based blue cheese briefly triumphed over its dairy competitors in a 2024 US taste tournament, before being controversially disqualified post-match. 

With advances in taste and texture on the up, sales are sure to follow. A recent report from Persistence Market Research predicts that the global vegan cheese market will grow from $23.1 million in 2024 to $86.1 million in 2031; a compound annual growth rate of 12.6%. 

And, as we discuss later, dairy companies are increasingly milking this vegan cash cow by buying up brands and developing their own vegan ranges. Despite this, several brands which were in the previous guide are no longer made, or no longer available in the UK. 

Can vegan cheese be called cheese?

Legally, we’re not supposed to call vegan cheese, ‘cheese’. UK regulations say the term can only be used to describe products derived from animals.

Vegan cheese brands work around this restriction by using inventive names and deliberately mis-spelling the word cheese e.g. 'sheese' and 'chease'. Despite the name restriction it can be eaten and used in the same way as dairy cheese, and looks identical.

What is vegan cheese made from?

The table further down shows the three main ingredients of each brand’s flagship vegan cheese. They can loosely be divided into two groups:

• nut-based cheeses (typically, but not exclusively, smaller artisanal brands)
• coconut oil and starch-based cheeses (typically mass-produced options)

Coconut oil and starch-based cheeses tend to comprise water, coconut oil and modified starch, generally followed by salt and a series of thickeners, stabilisers, and flavourings. These ingredients are classic signifiers of ultra-processing: coaxing starch and oil to mimic dairy cheese apparently requires a little chemical persuasion. These cheeses generally contain little or no calcium and tend to lack other important micronutrients found in dairy cheese, such as iodine, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. They are generally more likely to be the 'hard' blocks, slices and grated varieties of vegan cheese.

For those wishing to avoid ultra-processed foods, nut-based cheeses can be a preferable option. Mouse’s Favourite’s flagship cheese contains only organic cashews, water, salt, and cultures (bacteria which cause fermentation), and many of the options at Honestly Tasty, La Fauxmagerie, and Tyne Chease are made of ingredients you could find in a pantry. Nut-based cheeses also generally contain more protein and lower levels of salt and saturated fats than starch-based products, but tend to be more expensive and less widely available in supermarkets, as you can see from the table below.

In general, don’t turn to vegan cheese for its nutritional profile. The odd slice of vegan cheese is unlikely to do much harm, but it probably shouldn’t be relied on as a direct nutritional replacement to dairy. See our forthcoming guide to pulses for information on healthier protein replacements!

For more information on meeting nutritional needs if you are switching to a wholly vegan diet, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, see the NHS advice page.

Nut free vegan cheese

As noted above, many vegan cheeses contain nuts, with some made primarily from cashews. 

In this guide Cheezly, La Fauxmagerie, Green Vie, and MozzaRisella are the highest-scoring brands that sell nut-free cheese options. Honestly Tasty uses some nut-free recipes, but their production facility handles a selection of nuts. 

What are vegan cheese cultures?

Just as some dairy cheese is fermented, so are some vegan cheeses. Fermentation occurs through bacterial cultures, which are combinations of different strains. This ripens the cheese, which can help preserve texture or impart flavour.

Mouse’s Favourite sells starter kits, as do websites such as satsumapips.co.uk. One example is a vegan strain, penicillium camemberti – the bacteria used to make the characteristic white mould you find on cheeses like Camembert and Brie.

Vegan cheese brands by type and cost

In the table below we list the vegan cheese brands in the guide and what types of vegan cheese they make e.g. blue, spread. We also note the average price, and the availability e.g. from supermarkets, direct, or wholefood shops. 

If you're looking for a specific type of cheese not on this list, you could search for it on vegancheese.co, an international directory.

(Prices recorded autumn 2024)

Who owns vegan cheese brands?

All vegan cheeses are vegan, but some are more vegan than others.

Many of the vegan cheese brands in this guide have been either acquired or developed by a handful of multinational dairy producers, while others are produced by fully vegan companies.

What’s going on here? Historically, the dairy industry has been hostile to veganism. Back in the 19th century, US dairy lobbyists portrayed margarine as an unnatural “demon spread”, and this sentiment pre-echoes contemporary legislative efforts to ban the descriptions “cheese” and “milk” from plant-based alternatives. In 2022, the UK’s biggest dairy company Arla launched a campaign titled Don’t Cancel the Cow to argue that people’s decisions to avoid dairy are ill-informed, and that the rise of veganism among young people is responsible for the dairy industry’s increasing financial precarity.

Other dairy companies are clearly taking a different route, however, and seem happy enough to partially “cancel the cow” once they’ve gained a foothold in the plant based market. This suggests that dairy companies are increasingly viewing vegan alternatives as less of an existential threat and more as a financial opportunity.

Which vegan cheese brands are fully vegan?

The following brands are fully vegan companies: 

• Cheezly (owner Vbites)
• Fauxmagerie
• Green Vie
• Honestly Tasty
• Mouse’s Favourite
• Nush
• Tyne Chease 

Every company scoring less than 100 in the Animal Products column is involved somehow in the meat or dairy sectors.

Vegan cheese brands owned by dairy companies

Some of the bigger and more available vegan cheese brands are owned by dairy companies.

The Applewood brand is owned by Norseland Holdings, itself part of TINE SA, Norway’s biggest producer of dairy products. Canadian dairy behemoth Saputo Inc owns Cathedral City, which offers both dairy and vegan varieties. Saputo also notably purchased the previously independent vegan cheese pioneer Sheese back in 2021.

Palace Culture was acquired by the Compleat Food Group in 2023, a company that owns the pork pie brand Pork Farms.

Italian brand MozzaRisella also belongs to a dairy company, Frescolat SRL.

Groupe Bel, the dairy giant behind Boursin, Laughing Cow and, you guessed it, Babybel, is also on a vegan diversification drive. It founded the vegan Nurissh brand in 2020, and in recent years has introduced vegan options to its Babybel, Boursin, and Laughing Cow cheeses.

Violife owner, Upfield, is well on its way to becoming fully vegan. Its Flora brand became vegan in 2019, but the company still uses some dairy in its Bertolli and Elmlea brands.

Green shoots in a growing market

Dairy companies aren’t the only ones lining up for a taste of the growing vegan cheese market. Green investors are also showing interest.

Honestly Tasty reported in 2022 that it had attracted a £250,000 investment from vegan financier Veg Capital, led by Veganuary founder Matthew Glover. The company said this formed part of a larger crowdfunding campaign to expand its business, following its establishment of a plant-based cheese factory in North London. Besides Veg Capital, the company listed another plant-based investor, Johnson Resolutions.

Meanwhile, vegan pizza restaurant chain Purezza announced it had merged with vegan cheesemaker La Fauxmagerie earlier in 2024, when it bought a majority slice of the company.

3 reasons to switch to vegan cheese

If you are keen to reduce your environmental impact and be kinder to animals, here are just three reasons why switching to vegan cheese may be worth it.

1. Reduce carbon emissions

Differing production methods make it difficult to provide accurate data on climate impact, but one study involving Violife vegan cheese stated that dairy cheese generated between 6.4kg and 13.4kg CO2e per kilogram, whereas the Violife vegan cheese (whose main ingredients are water, coconut oil, and modified starch) created at least 3.7kg less carbon dioxide per kilogram.

Figures for almonds/cashews and soya beans are even more favourable. Nuts clock in at around 2kg CO2e per kg, although almonds are a little more carbon intensive than other varieties.

For more detail, see our article comparing the climate impacts of dairy and plant-based foods.

2. Preserve rainforests

Forests, grasslands, and savannahs are being cleared for soya bean production and, according to the World Wildlife Fund, more than 80% of soya is used to feed livestock, including dairy cows. It requires 24g of soya to produce 100g of dairy cheese so, if people switched from dairy cheese to vegan versions, global soya demand might drop. 

Some dairy companies, such as Cathedral City owner Saputo Inc., have been linked to deforestation in Brazil.

3. End animal suffering

Dairy production relies on forced cycles of impregnation, separation from calves, and milk extraction. Needless to say, this is all without the animals’ consent. Once their milk production declines, dairy animals are often slaughtered, even if they are still young. Every dairy product comes from a mother in this cycle. 

For more on the animal rights and animal welfare issues of dairy, see our guide to dairy milk and our separate article on the typical life of a dairy cow.
 

How well do vegan cheese brands rate on the environment and agriculture?

We looked at how the vegan cheese brands in this guide rate for climate and agricultural policies and practices. 

Climate ratings of vegan cheese brands

No companies received above 70/100 for their approach to climate change. 

Even though the production of plant-based cheese produces far fewer emissions than dairy, we expect all companies to take reasonable steps to minimise their climate impact. Surprisingly, two large companies, the Bel Groupe and the Compleat Food Group (Palace Culture), both of which also operate in the dairy sector, came out just as well as some of the smaller brands due to having good carbon reporting, and science-based targets.

Agriculture ratings for vegan cheese brands

Many companies scored poorly in this category. 

Although many vegan cheeses are ultra-processed, all the brands in this guide use some natural ingredients. Most are coconut oil based, yet detailed commitments to ethical coconut sourcing are rare. Saputo, which owns Sheese and Cathedral City, has promised to source all of its plant ingredients “sustainably” by 2025, but we found no clear definition of what this meant. The company also lost marks in the category after it was fined £1.5 million by the UK Environment Agency for environmental offences in 2022.

Elsewhere, low scores were mainly due to lack of policy rather than evidence of bad practice.

Mouse’s Favourite scored 80/100 for exclusively using organic-certified cashews, which means that farmers use crop rotation, natural pest control, and soil conservation practices to maintain healthy ecosystems.

However, organic certification is not necessarily a guarantee of workers’ rights protections. Overall, we found that the sector lacks policy to protect workers’ rights in company supply chains. For a more detailed look at the ethics of cashew sourcing see our forthcoming case study.

Are there any organic vegan cheese brands?

Mouse’s Favourite, Mozzarisella and Palace Culture were the only fully organic brands in the guide. 

Vegan cheese packaging 

Although vegan cheese is an emergent product, its packaging lacked innovation.

No companies appeared to be entirely plastic-free; cheeses tend to be either vacuum-wrapped or sold in plastic tubs.

A few Tyne Chease products are packaged in glass jars, while most supermarket options are contained in plastic pouches and coated in plastic film.

Some of the more artisan options need to be kept cold during transit, which limits eco-friendly packaging options. Mouse’s Favourite and Fauxmagerie cheeses come wrapped in ice packs, but while these can be returned and re-used, at present neither company pays the return postage.

We discuss delivery dilemmas in our guide to online ethical wholefood shops, some of which stock chilled/frozen products for delivery.

How much does vegan cheese cost?

As you can see from the table above, some of the independent artisanal  options are not cheap. At upwards of £10 per 200g, these cheeses are roughly equivalent to the price of lobster, and only compete with luxury dairy cheeses.

Realistically, these aren’t an everyday buy on most household budgets; they are food for the hamper, not for the pantry.

However, some other independent brands like Green Vie, Nush, and Cheezly are only a little more expensive than the lowest scoring brands on the table. 

So, an ethical choice needn’t be a luxury one and can be made on most budgets. Nush is also increasingly available in supermarkets, so is a good call for budget-strapped households.

How ethical is my local vegan cheese maker?

There are many local artisan vegan cheese producers out there – far too many to cover in this guide. We recommend searching for local independent manufacturers in your area.

These are likely to be a low-risk ethical choice, as artisan producers tend to use fewer ingredients and usually manufacture in-house.

Buying local can be better from a waste perspective too, as many vegan cheeses are shipped in insulating packaging and ice packs when posted.

Voices from the supply chain: Cashew workers

Workers’ rights issues, from acid hand burns to low pay, make ethical cashew sourcing challenging. We explore the ethics of cashew nuts in more detail to find out what the issues are and what brands are doing about sourcing ethical cashews. 

In 2023, a person in Kenya called Daniel Faraja, who lives near a cashew processing plant, noticed his neighbour’s hands looked disfigured. He asked how it had happened. The worker, whose name wasn’t shared, told him:

“I work at the cashew nut processing plant. My hands look like this because of the cashew nuts.”

Faraja said, “It looked so bad and she said she was in pain. I decided to take pictures and share them online because I realised, this person is illiterate, they have not gone to school … they’re not provided with gloves to protect their hands. They are given some temporary gloves, but after 10 to 20 minutes, they’re worn out – they’re not given any others.”

Issues facing cashew workers

Acid hand burns

Cashews are originally encased in a shell. Splitting the shells by hand without protection can result in burns to the skin from the acids between the shell and the nut leading to severe pain and even permanent damage. 

Widespread health issues

While acid burns are the risk that’s most unique to cashew workers, a 2024 study in Kerala found that cashew workers commonly experience a range of other health problems. This includes a high risk of musculoskeletal disorders, chronic lung diseases and dermatological problems.

Underpayment

Low pay in the cashew sector has been reported for decades, along with other workers' rights issues. Workers tend to be underpaid and overworked, and, according to Equal Exchange, the cashew industry is marred by a number of problems including “unsafe and exploitative working conditions, poverty-line wages, and ecologically unsustainable supply chains”. 

The charity Traidcraft Exchange says the poor working conditions are caused by European buyers including UK supermarkets, who ‘aggressively push down prices’, forcing cashew companies to hire cheap labour.

What are brands doing about these issues?

We haven’t ranked brands that sell whole cashews on their ethics (like we have other products like chocolate and tea, for example). 

But we have researched plant based milk and cheese brands, many of which use cashew. It’s likely that only a small amount of the world’s cashews end up in vegan products like these – many are sold and consumed whole or used in sweets, curries and cereals. But here we’ve examined what brands in these sectors are doing to safeguard cashew workers’ rights. 

Cashews are the key ingredient in cashew milk, which the brands Plenish, ReRooted and Rude Health sell.

They are also commonly used in vegan cheese – especially for the smaller brands that are making more artisan cheeses (as opposed to waxy, more processed styles like Violife).

Some brands didn’t appear to be taking any steps to mitigate the high risks of cashew worker exploitation. Others had some policy. None had worker-rights specific certifications like Fairtrade, or clear descriptions showing they had a thorough understanding of what the risks were and how their suppliers guarded against them.

Brands who provide no response on cashew issues

Some brands hadn’t published any information about how they safeguard cashew workers’ rights in particular, and didn’t reply to our request for comment. These were:

• Palace Culture
• Plenish (for plant milk)
• Rude Health (for plant milk)

Brands providing some detail on cashew policy

Honestly Tasty: Its website stated that its cashew workers, in Goa, are paid “well above minimum wage, are offered flexible working hours & the necessary equipment to protect against injury”.

Mouse’s Favourite: It says workers in its cashew supply chain are paid above minimum wage and are provided with protective clothing where needed.

ReRooted: ReRooted’s Goan cashew supplier says its employees “are provided with appropriate personal protective equipment to protect against injury” and in one of its photos workers were wearing gloves. In response to our questions, ReRooted started communicating with the supplier about the occupational hazards associated with cashews, which we view as a positive approach.

Tyne Chease: Its website says "Our cashew nuts are only sourced from Fairtrade and SEDEX suppliers." But it wasn’t clear whether it meant Fairtrade International certification, and whether all of its cashews were fair trade.

While these brands are making the right noises, none had thorough discussions about, for example, the issue of hand burns, or clear policies and practices they implemented for all cashew workers to prevent this specifically, with most just referencing PPE.

Organic certification ensures cashews are grown without artificial chemicals, such as pesticides, but we do not consider organic certification to provide assurance regarding workers’ rights. 

Several brands use other certifications or auditing standards, but these did not contain specific clauses in relation to cashew harvesting and processing.

What more could brands do to support cashew workers?

For products like chocolate, there are clear standards about what ‘more ethically sourced cocoa’ is – for example it has Fairtrade International or Rainforest Alliance certification or is value-added-at-source.

But there doesn’t seem to be clearly defined standards that are being embraced across the cashew sector, even though international demand for the nut is soaring.

There are, however, some ways brands can source cashews more ethically.

Fairtrade International certified cashews

Fairtrade certified cashews are available to buy in the UK, for example from Oxfam or Tesco.

Fairtrade International certification requires cashew workers to be:

• Adequately protected from the cashew nut liquid.
• Provided with protective garments and oils from the employer.
• The employer should train workers on how to use these protective garments / oils.
• And the employer should monitor to ensure all the above happens.

Engaging with suppliers to see how seriously the issue is taken

Equal Exchange, a Best Buy in our ethical coffee guide, seems also to have a strong approach on cashews. 

We asked how it addressed workers’ rights for the cashews it sells. It replied promptly with an explanation from its cashew supplier, called Gebana, in Burkina Faso.

The supplier said their employees protect their hands with cashew oil while working. Cashew oil is a by-product of the production process and is extracted from oily kernels that are not suitable for consumption. They say it acts as a natural antidote to the corrosive liquid from the shells. 

“At the end of the day, the workers clean their hands thoroughly with maize flour and lemon juice to remove all traces of the liquid. We have carried out various tests with different types of gloves, but the cashew oil approach has proven to be the most effective method of protection.”

It claims that these practices are used across Gebana’s entire supply chain.

While verifying the effectiveness of these practices is beyond our scope, this seems like a strong approach to cashew workers’ rights issues because it shows:

• The brand has a relationship with its supplier.
• The supplier is aware of the risks in its sector and does not try to obfuscate them.
• They have a realistic narrative explaining how they have tried to deal with the issues.
• Their preferred solution is said to apply for all workers throughout the supplier’s business.

An expanding cashew industry

Demand for this sweet, protein-filled nut (technically not a nut but a type of fruit called a drupe) is soaring. Global cashew yields leapt from 706,500 tons to 3.9 million tons between 1990 and 2018, reaching more than five million tons in 2022.

Where do cashews come from?

Cashews are native to Brazil, but are now grown widely across west Africa, India and south east Asia. Half of the world’s cashews are cultivated in west Africa, yet due to a lack of processing (shelling) capacities, African producers still export most of their crop as in-shell cashew nuts to Vietnam and India. Around 80% are processed in those two countries, before approximately 35% of those nuts are re-exported to consumers in Europe.

Environmental issues with cashews

A 2024 report by Might Earth highlighted the growing issue of cashew monocultures in West Africa, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire. Monocultures are eradicating the region’s remaining areas of dryland savanna forest, replacing them with hundreds of square kilometres of “green deserts”. 

This loss of biodiversity comes with a human cost. The replacement of traditional food crops with cashews, which are primarily exported, leaves the country vulnerable to market shocks. A 2023 price crash created widespread food insecurity in rural areas, with much of the region now a single crop economy.

Take action on cashew sourcing

If you want to show brands and suppliers that you care about workers rights in this sector, you can deliberately buy from brands with strong sourcing approaches. Or you can reach out to brands that use cashews and ask what measures they have in place – this is a powerful way to encourage brands to make sure they’re taking the issue seriously and try to raise standards in the industry. 

The [O] in the score table means all varieties are organic.

Additional research by Richard Stirling and Jasmine Owens.