NPR Discusses the Challenges of Making Vegan Cheese

With new and reformulated faux-meat products becoming increasingly close to the real thing, the market for cruelty-free foods is thriving. However, it may take a bit longer for vegan cheese to catch up to its flesh-free counterpart. According to NPR, food scientists are working diligently in an effort to replicate the taste and texture of dairy cheese. “It melts, spreads and becomes creamy. To try to duplicate that is to say we’re duplicating nature,” says food scientist Kantha Shelke. Though experts are beginning to develop products that mimic cheese’s natural qualities—notably Galaxy Nutritional Foods and Daiya, whose stretchy shreds have become a vegan staple—some believe there still remains a lot of work to do. “We’re coming close but we haven’t done it yet,” says Shelke.