Brie-lieve it! Food chemists make vegan cheeses as creamy as the original

GUELPH, Ontario — The older you get, the more likely you’ll becoming lactose intolerant. This leaves cheese-loving adults with two options: give up the cheddar for good or find another dairy alternative. Plant-based cheeses exist, but are not a popular option because they lack the creamy texture of the real thing. Now, scientists may be on the brink of taking vegan cheeses to the next level.

Chemists are working to create plant-based cheeses with the same functional properties as traditional cheese, such as melt, stretch, and texture. In a recent study published in Physics of Fluids, Canadian researchers explored how plant-based proteins interact with fat to improve texture and functionality, potentially offering a healthier and more sustainable alternative to dairy.

“If you wanted to strictly only eat plant-based products, you would end up eating a lot of beans and tofu, which can be little bit boring after a while,” says Alejandro Marangoni, a professor of food science at the University of Guelph in Canada and senior study author, in a statement. “Now, consumers expect essentially the same animal product but with plant-based ingredients, which is very difficult.”

Food chemists worked to create the same texture as other cheeses, which meant studying how these dairy products react when melted, stretched, and cooked in oil. “The behavior of milk proteins and meat proteins is reasonably well understood, but knowledge about the functionality of plant proteins is lacking,” Marangoni explains. “There is also a huge variety of different plant proteins, each one very different from one another.”

Previous research on vegan cheeses showed a mixture of 25% coconut oil, 75% sunflower oil, and a specific pea protein isolate (PP1) made a texture similar to real cheeses. In this study, the authors examined how proteins taken from lentils, faba bean, and a specific type of pea protein react to oil and the starch matrix of cheese alternatives. 

Raising the coconut oil concentration made the cheeses harder. However, cheese made from pea protein and 25% coconut oil had the firmest texture. The mixtures resembled or surpassed melt, oil loss, and stretching properties of vegan cheese made with 100% coconut oil. According to the authors, the blend of pea protein and coconut oil made cheeses harder thanks to the unique protein-fat interactions.

To decrease the saturated fat levels of vegan cheeses, researchers tested whether plant-based proteins would work effectively with a sunflower and coconut oil mix. This blend offers a lower-fat alternative while maintaining key functional properties of cheese.

Most surprisingly, the researchers found that this reduced-saturated-fat version maintained a firmness of 80 Newtons, nearly matching the 100 Newtons achieved with full coconut oil content. This discovery suggests that high levels of saturated fat aren’t necessary for proper cheese structure, as long thought.

“Ultimately we want to improve the nutrition, increase the protein content, and lower the saturated fat content of cheese alternatives,” Marangoni says. “But keeping all the functionality in there, which includes the melt and the stretch of the ‘cheese,’ is very difficult.”

By demonstrating that plant proteins can be leveraged to create better-performing products with healthier fat profiles, the study opens new possibilities for the entire plant-based food industry. This could lead to a new generation of products that better satisfy both nutritional and sensory expectations. With this new understanding of protein-fat interactions, manufacturers can potentially create plant-based cheeses that not only taste better but also contribute to reduced environmental impact and improved public health.