Vegan Cheese in 2022 a Recap

Vegan Cheese in 2022 a Recap

Well 2022 has been a year of challenging yet also a blossoming year for vegan cheese. It's been a challenging one for many cheese makers with the aftermath of recent years and covid.

So please go support the amazing vegan cheese makers this coming Veganuary to give them that extra big hug after such hard times.

Table of contents

Well 2022 has been a year of challenging yet also a blossoming year for vegan cheese. It's been a challenging one for many cheese makers with the aftermath of recent years and covid.

So please go support the amazing vegan cheese makers this coming Veganuary to give them that extra big hug after such hard times.

We've seen a number of exceptionally talented cheese makers close their doors this year that brought something pioneering and unique to the world of vegan cheese.

And we've seen some of the biggest dairy brands in the world step in to the vegan cheese industry with new products.

With these ups and downs, we will share some of the biggest moments and data from the year 2022 with you.

How Many Vegan Cheeses

At the time of writing this end of year report on vegan cheese, there are 1758 vegan cheese.

This live count below will update over time as we add new cheeses to the database as it directly pulls the data from our discovery tool which we are continually updating and adding new vegan cheeses to.

1, 779

Vegan Cheese Data for 2022

At the end of the year we like to take stock of everything we have accomplished here at vegancheese.co

Nearly all of our effort goes in to keeping the vegan cheese database up to date so that you can find new amazing dairy free cheeses.

And with that in mind, we'll share some stats and data about where the database and discovery tool is at the end of the year.

You've already seen how many vegan cheeses we've ended the year on, below we look at many other facets of the database.

Remember you can head to the vegan cheese database at any time to find new favourites and see most of the data for yourself.

Countries With the Most Vegan Cheese

United Kingdom has the most amount of vegan cheeses with 540 at the end of the year 2022.

United States comes in second with 412 vegan cheeses.

Germany come in third with 196 vegan cheeses.

We have catalogued a total of 38 countries in the world with vegan cheese where you can get vegan cheese in a store or from an artisanal vegan cheese maker.

Vegan Cheese Types

Cheddar, herb and pepper vegan cheeses are the three most popular vegan cheese types that we have in our database.

Cheddar has 303 options, herb has 282 and there are 168 pepper vegan cheeses to choose from at the end of this year.

There are also a total of 48 different types of vegan cheese, from smoked, to mozzarella, gouda alternatives and much more.

Main Ingredient

At the end of 2022 the main ingredients that were used the most in the making of vegan cheeses were cashew, coconut and almond with soy and rice making up the fourth and fifth most used ingredients.

Vegan Cheese Form

Block, tubs and jars are the most popular forms of vegan cheese that you will find when you are looking for vegan cheese.

Who Makes The Vegan Cheese

So, who is making all of this amazing cheese?

Well, at the end of 2022, you'll find that artisanal vegan cheese makers make up the vast majority of vegan cheeses in the world.

We call this production type on the discovery tool and artisans make 1160 of the cheeses at the end of 2022.

518 of all vegan cheeses are made by large brands and are mass produced.

Ingredients and Health

Everyone and their local uncle who owns a happy farm think that vegan cheeses are unhealthy, here we share what they're made with so you can see what vegan cheeses in 2022 look like.

944 vegan cheeses are made with a mix of wholefood and processed ingredients.

390 vegan cheeses are made with entirely processed ingredients.

338 vegan cheeses are made with completely wholefood ingredients. 

If health is a concern for you, head to that filter and click that wholefoods option to see what you available!

Textures of Vegan Cheeses

Semi-hard, semi-soft and cream vegan cheeses are the three most popular textures when it comes to vegan cheese options.

714 of them are semi-soft cheeses, making this the most popular texture.

491 are semi-hard in texture and creamy vegan cheeses have 281 options at the end of the year 2022.

You can also see soft, hard, flaked, sauce and other textures using this filter.

 

Cultivated Cheese

Lab grown cheese has become a forefront of vegan cheese discussion this year with new developments from a number of dairy free labs that have been slowly researching and developing behind the scenes for a few years now.

You will find that cultivated cheese was launched this year for the first time, so you can get vegan dairy cheeses right now.

We saw the first cultivated cheese products launched in 2022 with even more planned for 2023.

New Countries Added to the Database

We have had some firsts this year, with new countries being added to the database.

This means that we have added vegan cheese to the database which you can buy from a vegan cheese maker in a country that we have never listed before.

We've seen worldwide growth of vegan cheese makers with increasing popularity in Japan and Mexico.

Some Vegan Cheese Makers Stopped Creating

Unfortunately, as much as the industry has grown, there were a few vegan cheese makers that stopped creating vegan cheese altogether for various reasons.

Mostly this is down to covid and what happened through the pandemic in 2022 and 2021, which led to some companies not being able to bounce back after such horrible lows for the industry.

Food by Sumear and Tomme Pousse are two of these companies. Food by Sumear was a small artisanal vegan cheese maker in the UK and made some of the most incredible aged vegan cheeses we have ever tried.

Tomme Pousse were a larger brand making vegan cheese and were available to buy in a number of supermarkets throughout Europe. Unfortunately they have also ceased production and stopped selling vegan cheese this year.

Big Brands Entered The Vegan Cheese Industry

Although some vegan cheese makers have stopped, this hasn't stopped new products and big brands producing their first vegan cheeses.

We've seen big companys also bringing out products in Veganuary 2022 with plant-based baby bel, Philadelphia and this autumn with cathedral city bringing out their plant-based cheddar in the UK as well as Laughing Cow bringing out their first vegan cheese at the end of 2022.

Vegan Cheese Awards

Our global cheese awards had more votes than ever and with Violife Greek taking the Best Vegan Cheese of 2022, for the full list of winners from the vegan cheese awards 2022 head here.

 

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Discover Other Vegan Cheeses

Thinking of going vegan but finding it hard to quit dairy cheese?

We have the biggest database of vegan cheeses anywhere online at our discovery app

Go check it out as we're sure you can find a new favorite or first vegan cheese that you love!