Is Cheese a Dairy Food?

January 15, 2024 janet@janetfletcher.com

Boont Corners: Good Foods award winner — Good Food Award Finalist: Pennyroyal Farm Boont Corners Reserve

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?

Milk Pleads Its Case

January 29, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

Is “cashew cheese” cheese? Is “almond milk” milk? The FDA wanted our opinion but the public comment period just closed. Not to worry. More than twelve thousand people weighed in on whether plant-based foods like soy milk should be allowed to keep their dairy-referencing names. Cheese has a standard of identity—a government-policed definition—and cashew brie does not meet it. Is it time for the FDA to step in and insist that “milk” and “cheese” are dairy products? Or is the dairy industry overreaching in arguing that consumers are confused?

Browse the Archive:

Planet Cheese Blog

Welcome to my world: a fragrant, fascinating universe devoted to great cheese. In this and future Planet Cheese posts, you’ll find profiles of the world’s best cheeses plus insights into everything cheese: shops, recipes, interviews, pairing discoveries, classes, videos, travel. If you haven’t already done so, sign up here - it’s complimentary - and join me in learning something new about cheese every week.