Traditional vegan cheese substitutes often rely on solid fats such as coconut or palm oil to achieve a sliceable, meltable texture, resulting in high saturated fat content. Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have pioneered a method using home-grown vegetable oils, including rapeseed and sunflower, as a sustainable alternative to create a healthier and more sustainable vegan cheese. The team used a process called oleogelation, where oleogelators are added to liquid oil to form microscopic structures that trap the oil, creating a gel that behaves like solid fat.
The new vegan cheese made from vegetable oils has a lower saturated fat content, as low as 3%, compared to traditional vegan cheese which can have up to 25% saturated fat. The team has proven their recipe works theoretically and in the lab but has not yet taken it to the kitchen or onto a plate. The team aims to present the cheese to a tasting panel within the next 10 months.
The Heriot-Watt University team has received funding from the UK Research and Innovation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to reach a new milestone. Consumers are becoming increasingly averse to palm and coconut oil due to deforestation and its impact on wildlife like orangutans, and the team is focused on using crops that can be grown sustainably, at scale, in the UK to reduce food miles.