The New Age of Plant-Based Cheese

From falstaff.com

What was once a compromise has become a category worth taking seriously. As producers refine fermentation, texture and flavour, Swedish innovators are among those helping plant-based cheese win over chefs, restaurants and even traditional dairies

Necessity is the mother of invention

Or, in Simon Francis’s case, frustration. “After more than two decades as a vegan, the choice of plant-based cheeses was extremely limited. They were oil-based and simply not very good — the sort of products you buy once and never again,” says Francis, explaining that he eventually decided to turn that culinary frustration into something quite literally delicious.

A genuinely good cashew-based product

Together with Silvia Todeschini, he founded a creamery in 2020. The ambition was twofold: to create a genuinely good cashew-based product that could also compete with dairy cheese. Six years on, Casheury, based in Skivarp in Skåne, southern Sweden, has become a success story. After extensive experimentation with fermentation, herbs and spices, its alternatives to products such as mozzarella and Gorgonzola are now sold in grocery shops from Kiruna in Sweden’s far north to Abbekås in the far south. In restaurants, they are served at places including the Italian eatery Piadina in Stockholm.

Where does the flavoUr come from?

“Most people who are sceptical about vegan cheese have either never tried it or have only tried older coconut-fat-based versions with no protein,” says Gustav Johansson, cookbook author and the writer behind Sweden’s most popular vegan food blog, Jävligt gott. “The flavour of dairy-based soft cheese comes primarily from bacterial cultures. What is happening now is that artisan nut-based products, whose protein allows the bacterial cultures in blue cheeses to react in a similar way, are becoming good enough — and scalable enough — to make a real impact.”

In Sweden, that scaling-up is still at an early stage. Alongside Casheury, many producers remain small and somewhat niche. One of them is the vegan cheese maker fermenting and ageing nuts and seeds at Bliss Cafe in Stockholm, whose finished products are sold mainly in its own café and at the health-food shop Fully Rawsome. Internationally, however, the trend has gathered much stronger momentum. In London, hipster pizza joints such as Voodoo Ray’s and Yard Sale top their pies with products from I Am Nut Okay. Julienne Bruno’s burrata-style Burrella is served in the Harrods Tea Rooms, while Honestly Tasty’s acclaimed blue cheese can be enjoyed at Michelin-starred institutions such as Pied à Terre. In Los Angeles, Alchemy Organica’s pungent cotija, made from grated, fermented coconut, has proved a game-changer for Mexican restaurants.

“Most people who are sceptical about vegan cheese have either never tried it or have only tried older coconut-fat-based versions with no protein. The flavour of dairy-based soft cheese comes primarily from bacterial cultures. What is happening now is that artisan nut-based products, whose protein allows the bacterial cultures in blue cheeses to react in a similar way, are becoming good enough — and scalable enough — to make a real impact.”   -     Gustav Johansson, cookbook author

In Italy and France, several major companies — among them Les Nouveaux Affineurs — have found ways to standardise production and produce convincing dairy-free Camembert at scale. It may sound counterintuitive that European countries with such deeply rooted cheese cultures are also focusing on plant-based alternatives.

Gustav Johansson believes, however, that the shift is driven by self-interest. Because there is another necessity at play beyond satisfying taste buds: climate impact. “Cheese has a higher climate footprint than pork. At the same time, it is an unrealistic utopia to solve the problem simply by telling people to stop eating it. As vegan artisan cheeses improve and become genuinely delicious, people are given a way to keep eating what they love, but with a lower climate footprint.”

Even traditional dairies are embracing the trend

Porlammin Meijeri, east of  Helsinki, was founded in 1914 and, 102 years later, began launching plant-based cheeses. “We are always looking for ways to evolve, and we believed demand for this would continue to grow. The hardest part was convincing our owners — all of them milk producers — that it was a good idea,” recalls CEO Kari Ollikainen. Today, the company offers around 15 vegan cheeses, along with versions developed for professional kitchens. “We have also been working on the next generation of plant-based hard cheeses, with much higher protein content and better flavour.”

“Yes, it is the next generation that is truly exciting right now,” Gustav Johansson agrees. The process behind a soft cheese in the style of Brie differs significantly from the technique used to make a hard cheese such as Gouda. It depends on the unique protein casein, which is difficult to replace. To mimic it, producers have relied almost exclusively on processes in which coconut fat coagulates with starch before flavourings and colourings are added. The result is often worlds apart from a classically aged hard cheese.

Determined Pioneers

A growing number of pioneers, however, are determined to crack the problem. Among them are several Swedes, including Stockeld Dreamery, founded by tech entrepreneur Sorosh Tavakoli and biotechnologist Anja Leissner in 2019. It is, in every sense, a creamery with future-facing ambitions. By analysing, combining and fermenting legumes, the company aims to find a molecular match for casein. That, in turn, could give animal-free cheese a similarly distinctive texture — one that, combined with excellent flavour, could make it a serious alternative. One of the companies it has worked with so far is Porlammin Meijeri.

“The first product was quietly launched in New York in early 2023,” says Daniel Skavén Ruben, who at the time was Stockeld’s Chief Strategy Officer, pointing out that the global cheese market is worth 100 billion dollars. “People love cheese, and they will continue to love cheese in the future. But it will be produced differently. For example, through plants combined with casein, and whey proteins that can be cultivated in bioreactors in much the same way as beer is brewed.”

"We are always looking for ways to evolve, and we believed demand for this would continue to grow. The hardest part was convincing our owners — all of them milk producers — that it was a good idea! We have also been working on the next generation of plant-based hard cheeses, with much higher protein content and better flavour.”   -   CEO Kari Ollikainen

What comes next?

After a major boom in plant-based food solutions, sales of vegan products have recently seen a sharp decline. In the autumn of 2025, Sorosh Tavakoli — himself  based in New York because “I felt an expansion into the world’s largest cheese market needed the CEO on site” — announced that Stockeld would be shutting down. Then, just two months ago, the company jubilantly declared that it had “found a new home”.

What comes next is still too early to say. It is already clear, however, that regardless of how the wider market for vegan products develops, plant-based cheese can taste genuinely good, offer strong nutritional value and generate between 70 and 90 per cent lower climate emissions than animal-based options.

That alone is a future worth looking forward to.

https://www.falstaff.com/nordics/news/the-new-age-of-plant-based-cheese