The science of plant-based foods: Approaches to create nutritious and sustainable plant-based cheese analogs

There has been a growing interest in consumers around the world in adopting a more plant-based diet for health, sustainability, and ethical reasons. Many commercially successful products have already been developed, including plant-based meat and milk analogs. However, the production of plant-based cheese analogs that consumers find desirable and acceptable has proved extremely challenging. This is mainly due to the compositional and structural complexity of real cheese products, which is difficult to mimic using plant-derived ingredients. In this review article, we start by providing a brief overview of the production and properties of real dairy cheese. We then describe the plant-based ingredients and processing operations that can be used to assemble cheese analogs that mimic the composition, structure, physicochemical properties, sensory, and nutritional attributes of real cheese. We also consider in this review the potential impact of switching from animal-based to plant-based cheese on the environment and human health. Plant-based cheeses can be produced from plant proteins obtained using fractionation or tissue disruption routes. These products are typically complex colloidal dispersions consisting of lipid droplets embedded within a viscoelastic polysaccharide and/or protein network. These plant-based cheeses are likely to be more environmentally sustainable and better for animal welfare than their regular counterparts. More research is needed to identify appropriate ingredients and processing methods, including understanding the changes in texture and flavor as well as creating appropriate melting behaviors. Moreover, further research is required to improve the nutritional profile and test the health effects of plant-based cheeses.