Consumer evaluations of commercially available plant-based cheddar cheese alternatives reveal inferior taste, nutrition and emotional appeal.

Many people in the Western world wish to reduce dietary reliance on animal-based and animal-derived foods. Plant-based (PB) meat and dairy alternatives can aid in this transition, but in the dairy category, only the milk market is well developed. Attention in the present research is, therefore, directed to PB cheese alternatives (PBCA), which were studied relative to dairy cheeses in a consumer taste test (central location setting) with 157 New Zealand (NZ) consumers conducted in 2023. Five commercial semi-hard cheeses from cow's milk and three commercial PBCAs in the cheddar style were tested. All samples were presented blind, and a multi-response measurement paradigm (hedonic, sensory, emotional, conceptual, situational, attitudinal) was used. Results showed that, without major exception, all PBCAs had lower liking ratings, inferior sensory, emotional and conceptual characterisations and poorer attitudinal and situational use evaluations than their dairy counterparts. Further, all of the PBCAs were rated similarly, as contrasted with the dairy cheese samples, which were differentiated based on textural and flavour attributes, liking and non-sensory characterisations. It was concluded that, as a whole, PBCAs in the 2023 NZ market were poorly accepted by consumers, suggesting that much more research and consumer-focused product development is needed before these products offer consumers suitable choices if they seek to transition from an animal-based to a PB diet.