Dairy Stages a Comeback

There is just something about conventional cheese. It has a winning combination of flavor, richness, and meltability. And while plant-based alternatives have been around for more than half a century, few non-vegans would choose them over the real thing. Daniel Wilbanks, a dairy applications specialist with the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research, says this is because of the protein casein, which contains all nine essential amino acids.

“Dairy is designed to be the sole nutritional source for mammals,” he says. “These proteins are designed to carry all these nutrients, and that’s what gives them their taste and functionality. You just can’t mimic that with plants.”

Yet Armored Fresh, a South Korean–based vegan cheese company, may have gotten close. The company’s new grilled cheese restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y., is thriving—and point-of-sale data show that 70% of its patrons are not vegan. Andrew Yu, vice president, credits the company’s success with its focusing on the art of cheese making.

“Historically, vegan cheese makers have focused on the science of plant-based cheese,” he says. “But you need the art side of it to know what humidity, what temperature, what duration, what bacteria—so you can get a taste and texture that works.”

Armored Fresh brought food scientists and chefs together to innovate and come up with what he calls their “beautiful creations.” They ultimately created a proprietary key mix that adds the right flavors and textures to their products.

Inflation has hit plant-based dairy hard over the past few years, but Yu believes that it will be possible to get to price parity with regular cheese in the future. And his goal is to create more plant-based products that will be equal to or even exceed the nutritional values you can get from dairy. Yu believes this industry is “inevitable”—and the latest market research from Innova Market Insights seems to support that notion. The launch of nondairy cheeses is growing at a breakneck pace, hoping to entice consumers with clean ingredient, gluten-free, and GMO-free claims.

“Consumer demand is going to grow,” Yu says. “More companies will come in, more money will come in, and greater innovations will continue to happen in this space. It’s going to eventually push the boundaries on new plant-based flavors and products.”