The cheeses I love are a collaboration between humans and animals. Milk, culture, enzymes and salt plus centuries of passed-down expertise. But I may need to rethink that. Last week, for the first time, a plant-based product was named a finalist for a Good Food Award in the cheese category. I wasn’t even aware that plant-based products could enter, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about this news. If cheese isn’t from milk, what is cheese? I reached out to some people whose opinions I value—retailers, cheesemakers, writers—for their thoughts on this shifting landscape. Is it time to redefine cheese in a way that embraces non-dairy alternatives?

The Good Food Award finalist is a blue from Climax Foods, a Berkeley-based biotech company. A few restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, are using the product but it’s not yet available at retail.

Climax Foods contacted me a couple of years ago for input on their product evaluation methods. I offered some suggestions about the forms they were using and spent an hour or so at their office tasting works in progress. I was curious how well the standards and sensory vocabulary I use for cheese would work for products not made from milk.

GFA finalist: Cascadia Creamery Sleeping Beauty

I typically judge the Good Food Awards but had a scheduling conflict, so I haven’t tasted the blue that Climax Foods entered. The judges were aware it was plant based, says Good Food Award spokesman Samantha Putman Allen, just as they’re told whether a cheese is from cow, goat or sheep milk.

“We have allowed non-dairy cheese in the category for over five years,” Allen told me, “and we’re up-front with entrants that they will be compared against dairy competitors. They haven’t historically performed well, but obviously the judges enjoyed this.” Winners will be announced on April 29.

As the plant-based category grows, this issue certainly will not go away. Should these products have their own category in competitions? Or should they compete directly against the cheeses they are aiming to replace? Here (condensed and edited) are what some of my cheese-industry colleagues have to say. Readers, please weigh in with your thoughts in the Comments section at the end of the post.

Andy Hatch, co-owner

Uplands Cheese
Dodgeville, WI

I think it's inaccurate to call a product "cheese" when it's made from non-dairy ingredients. We should simply appeal to common sense and common understanding of what constitutes cheese (and milk, and meat, for that matter). Any 7-year-old could explain that.

Institutions like the Good Food Awards should take a stand for the sake of common sense but also for the sake of those of us who have done the hard work to imbue those nouns with meaning (nutritious, delicious, authentic, etc.). The longer the media allow misuse of these nouns, the harder it will be to reclaim them.

Jessica Little, co-owner

Sweet Grass Dairy
Thomasville, GA

GFA Finalist: Sweet Grass Dairy aged tomme

Awards are a great vehicle for companies to promote their products and add consumer credibility. I would love for plant-based producers to have these tools to support their businesses. Many people cannot eat dairy but want a similar experience. I am happy for all the dairy-free or gluten-free kids at a pizza birthday party who now have the option for an allergen-free pizza. However, I think that plant-based cheeses should be judged in their own category as they are not made from "milk" as defined by the standard of identity for dairy products.

Sarah Simms, proprietor

Lady & Larder
Los Angeles

We have several milk categories for cheese. Maybe it's time we have an alternative category as well. The team behind Climax Foods is very talented. They have an incredible cheesemaker with a history in making traditional cow milk cheese and I think the work she and her team are doing is truly inspiring. Evolution is exciting.

Mateo Kehler, co-owner

Jasper Hill Farm
Greensboro, VT

My take is that it’s not really cheese. It’s straight-up chemistry. These aren’t agricultural products. They’re not connected to land or landscape, or to our collective history. These products, with their clams to sustainability, are trying to create an adjacency to something that’s primordial and connected to our history as a species. They trade on some adjacency to real cheese, but they’re produced by biotechnology and propped up by massive amounts of venture capital. They are trading on the work of artisan cheesemakers who have been laboring to create cheeses that are good for the planet.

You don’t find a lot of vegans here in northern Vermont because we know where our food comes from. But that whole “know your farmer” business is impossible in a big city. (Veganism) really speaks to the alienation of urban Americans from their food system. It’s a rejection of industrial animal agriculture, and honestly, I reject that, too. There are issues with agriculture in an industrial age that clearly this plant-based movement is responding to. But their claims around sustainability are made by comparisons to the worst industrial agriculture.

Randall Felts, owner

Beautiful Rind
Chicago

GFA Finalist: Green Dirt Farm Prairie Tomme

My primary concern with this news is that it could damage the independent retailer's trust in the Good Food Awards. The awards are a great way for independent retailers like me to discover new producers and new products, but now I'm questioning the screening of these producers. (All entries are screened and must meet the Good Food Awards standards for the cheese category.) The FDA’s Code of Federal Regulations gives clear definitions for both “cheese” and “blue cheese.” I'm troubled by the lack of information on Climax's website as to how their product is produced.

I hope to find a plant-based cheese alternative that aligns with my shop's values. I know many consumers are looking for plant-based alternatives and I'm trying to educate myself on the alternatives. I would encourage the Good Food Foundation to create a plant-based category for future awards. It would be useful for both consumers and retailers.

Laura Werlin

Author and educator
San Francisco

Cheese is a story. It’s a story of place, animals, cheesemakers, art and science. Even if we don’t know that story, we can taste it. A good cheese is transformative, even if just momentary. The story of plant-based foods starts and ends in a factory. Sure, the people behind them have a story about why they’re doing it, but they’re probably not going to tell me the story of the nut tree or even the farmer who grew the nut tree. Cheese has meaning that plant-based foods simply do not.

For those who can’t eat dairy, I applaud the ever-improving products on the market. But calling a plant-based food “cheese” is a bit painful if you have traveled to dairy farms, met the farmers, seen them working over steamy vats and doing backbreaking work to bring us great cheese. This is why we wax poetic over cheese. We know what went into it.