A Vegan Cheese Was Up For A Good Food Award – But Was Mysteriously Disqualified

A plant-based blue cheese from Climax Foods was disqualified from winning a Good Food Award after an undisclosed complaint about one of its ingredients, kokum butter, potentially not meeting FDA safety standards. The reasoning given was that the cheese wasn't "retail ready," as it was only approved for foodservice use, and the GRAS certification rule was added after Climax had already been selected as the winner. The CEO of Climax Foods, Oliver Zahn, accused the dairy industry of pressuring the Good Food Foundation to disqualify the plant-based cheese.

The disqualification of Climax's vegan cheese stirred controversy among dairy cheesemakers, with some claiming it was akin to fraud to present a vegan cheese as a dairy product. Despite the setback, Climax Foods continues to innovate in the plant-based cheese industry, using methods similar to dairy cheesemakers but with plant-based ingredients and machine learning frameworks. Zahn remains optimistic about the future of plant-based food, quoting Gandhi in a social media post about overcoming challenges in the industry.