The 9 Best Vegan Cheeses of 2024

What to Look for in Vegan Cheese

Primary Ingredients

Vegan cheeses are made with an assortment of ingredients, though some are more common. Processed, store-bought vegan cheeses are usually nut-based or made from various starches and flours, Means explains. 

Both dairy-based cheese and nuts fall into the category of "dietary fats," so it’s easy to see how nuts can help creaminess and palatability. For this reason, nuts like cashews and almonds are common primary ingredients in some vegan cheeses. Seeds, such as sunflower and hemp seeds, are also used in some dairy-free cheese products.

Starches and flours are often used as thickening agents in dairy-free cheese. This adds structure to shreds, slices, and blocks of vegan cheese.

Coconut oil is also a key ingredient in vegan cheese with good melting properties. This helps vegan cheese stay firm at cooler temperatures but allows it to soften at warmer temperatures.

The ingredients in vegan cheese can vary wildly from brand to brand, notes Newgent. Generally, vegan cheese will contain its base ingredients along with ingredients to add thickness and flavor. In some cases, vegan cheese may contain ingredients that add color, such as beta carotene, and preservatives, Newgent adds.

Certifications

Many dairy-free cheeses are certified plant-based or vegan, but these seals aren’t regulated by the FDA. Still, they can hold some weight if you follow a specific meal plan or lifestyle.

Vegan certifications are issued by independent bodies like Natural Food Certifiers, Vegan Action, and The Vegan Society. If a food dons any of these vegan certifications, it means that it doesn’t contain any animal-derived ingredients and it wasn’t tested on animals.

There’s also a plant-based certification independently verified by NSF International. It’s specifically intended for vegan-friendly food products that mimic meat, eggs, and dairy, though the criteria is stricter. On top of being made from plant-derived ingredients, foods donning this seal must be made from at least 90 percent plant-based ingredients with the remaining 10 percent coming from ingredients of non-plant or -animal origin (aka natural flavors, added colors, etc.).

Other certifications to look for, depending on your values:

• Halal
• Non-GMO
• Kosher
• Organic
• Rainforest Alliance
• B Corporation

Texture

Vegan cheese gets a bad reputation because, historically, it hasn’t always had a smooth texture. In the past, vegan cheeses have been grainy, gritty, and chalky, which has scared some people into trying the newer formulas we have today. 

While there will always be some outliers, dairy-free cheeses can have a similar feel and consistency to real cheese. Of the ones we tried, Field Roast Chao Creamy Original Chao Slices have the most realistic texture. It’s soft as is but melts into a creamy texture like dairy-based cheese. 

If you’re not used to vegan cheese, the textural differences may be the first thing you notice. It may not be a perfect copycat, but some dairy-free options get pretty close.

Taste

While taste is somewhat subjective, some vegan cheeses are more popular than others simply because they taste better. Depending on how they’re formulated—and which type of cheese they’re trying to emulate—vegan cheese can have a variety of tastes and flavor notes.

Like regular cheese, you can seek out various types—swiss, cheddar, ricotta, mozzarella, etc.—which will all have slightly different tastes. Certain ingredients can affect how cheesy a dairy-free cheese will taste. Nutritional yeast is a popular ingredient in vegan cheese and it’s known for adding a cheese-like flavor in products like NOOCH IT! Cashew Grated Cheeze. Other formulas rely on seasonings, such as the spices in the Good Foods Plant Based Queso Style Dip.

"Not all vegan cheese is good, so if you try one that you don’t like, don’t give up," Means says. "There are many good ones out there." Since taste comes down to personal preference, you might have to try a few before you find the ones you like best.

Ultimately, if a vegan cheese doesn’t taste good, you likely won’t eat it, so this one is pretty important. Reading reviews isn’t always a reliable indicator of whether you will like the taste of a specific food item. Your best bet is to give some a whirl.

While some vegan cheeses come in blocks or rounds that can be used for snacking, melting, or cooking, most vegan cheeses do not. As such, it’s important to think about how you’ll want to use your vegan cheese. Will it be a midnight snack with crackers? Do you want to make a melty grilled cheese sandwich? Do you want to sprinkle it over your pasta? Generally, you’ll have to choose between shreds and slices, though there are also blocks, sauces, and spreads. 

Melting Properties

Depending on how you intend on using vegan cheese, such as making pizza or mac and cheese, you’ll want to look for a vegan cheese that melts. However, vegan cheese doesn’t melt the same regular cheese. It will soften and become creamier and stretchier, but it can still look similar to how it looked before heat was added.

If melting properties of vegan cheese are important to you, Newgent recommends looking for options that contain coconut oil. "Vegan cheeses made with coconut oil generally have good meltability," she says. Miyoko's Fresh Vegan Mozzarella is one of the more meltable picks, and we may have coconut oil to thank for that.

Based on her experience, Means recommends choosing blocks of vegan cheese that you grate yourself, such as Violife’s Just Like Parmesan Block. Grating or thinly slicing vegan cheese will help it melt better, which is a perk since vegan cheese can take longer than regular cheese to melt down.

FAQs

What is vegan cheese made of?

Vegan cheese is made from a variety of plant-derived ingredients. They’re typically made with a base of nuts, oils, soy, and various starches—sometimes a combination of ingredients are used to formulate vegan cheese.

"Nuts, seeds, soybeans, plant milks, oils, and nutritional yeast are common ingredients in vegan cheese," says Cehn. "A thickening agent like tapioca starch may be added for texture and shape while seasonings like nutritional yeast can help simulate a cheesy flavor."

Cehn adds that traditional cheese is mostly comprised of fat, so added oils like coconut oil are common in processed vegan cheese.

To gain more control of what your vegan cheese is made from, you can give DIY recipes a try. You can make vegan cheese at home with ingredients like potatoes, cashews, and nutritional yeast.

Does vegan cheese melt?

If you’re curious why you see words like "melts" and "stretches" plastered on vegan cheese packaging, it’s because it didn’t used to be that way. Since vegan cheese has come a long way, there are many types of vegan cheese that can melt similar to real cheese, allowing people who avoid or limit dairy products to enjoy melted cheese on sandwiches, burgers, and pasta.

Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to find vegan cheese that melts. Checking the packaging to see if it’s labeled as a meltable cheese is a good way to get an idea of how it will perform when heated. Ingredients like coconut oil also increases the chances that vegan cheese will melt.

Not all vegan cheese will melt, but many do—and some melt better than others.

Can you freeze vegan cheese?

Some cheeses, such as Miyoko’s mozzarella cheese, are easier to grate or slice when they’re really cold, and some even recommend popping them in the freezer before cutting into them. Just keep in mind that freezing vegan cheese can change the texture and consistency when it’s thawed. "Unless the dish has already been made, such as pasta, I recommend against freezing vegan cheese," Cehn says.

However, there’s no hard and fast rule against this. There are some perks to freezing your vegan cheese. Like regular cheese, many dairy-free cheeses are highly perishable and prone to going bad. And since vegan cheese isn’t exactly inexpensive, it can be costly to replace.

Some manufacturers recommend against freezing some of their products, so check the label to see if your vegan cheese can be frozen. If getting a longer lifespan out of your product is more important than the potential textural changes, then freeze away!

Is vegan cheese the same as plant-based cheese?

The terms "vegan" and "plant-based" are often used interchangeably, but they’re not the same. All vegan cheese is plant-based, but not all plant-based cheese is vegan.

"‘Vegan’ refers to a product made without any animal products, and ‘plant-based’ is more often used to indicate healthy, whole foods ingredients," Cehn explains. It usually comes down to marketing, she adds, so if you’re unsure if an ambiguous label aligns with your values, always check the full ingredients list.

In some cases, "plant-based" can also refer to a product that is made mostly from plant-derived ingredients but also contains small amounts of animal-based ingredients. "With little regulation, we’ve seen brands label products as ‘vegan,’ though they contain ingredients like casein, whey, or honey or had been processed with animal bone char," Cehn says. Though these are gray areas for some people, any amount of animal products doesn’t fall within the strict definition of veganism.

How We Selected

Our team of editors and contributors spent hours researching the best vegan cheeses on the market, evaluating their key features—like ingredients, meltability, and price—in addition to reviews from customers and other trusted sources. We then used our own knowledge and first-hand experiences to choose the items listed above.

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Lacey Muinos is a wellness and food writer with six years of vegan experience under her belt. She’s tried all the mainstream dairy-free brands, but Field Roast’s Chao cheese slices are her all-time favorite.

Writer and professional cheese eater Christine Clark teaches cheese and pairing classes throughout the United States and is dedicated to helping people expertly get their cheese on, even if it’s a vegan cheese they’re looking for. Her cheese adoration is so strong that she has a whole podcast dedicated to it. She is a Certified Cheese Professional through the American Cheese Society. She wrote the original version of this story.

Sources

• Michelle Cehn, a vegan of more than 15 years and the founder of World of Vegan
• Jackie Newgent, RDN, CDN, a plant-forward chef and dietitian
• Robin Means, a vegan of more than 20 years and a vegan recipe developer