Living a cruelty-free vegan lifestyle is hard. It means that you have to avoid any kind of meat, as well as animal byproducts like milk, eggs, cheese, etc.
This means you need to eat plant-based substitutes. For example, if you used to love cheese and you’re now vegan, you must make do with vegan cheese.
Now comes the question, does vegan cheese go bad? The simple answer is ” yes.” Vegan cheese can go bad over time. You just need to keep an eye on it like you would with milk-based cheeses.
In this article, you’ll learn more about how and when vegan cheese expires.
Does Vegan Cheese Go Bad?
As mentioned above, vegan cheese can go bad. Whether you buy it at a store or make homemade vegan cheese, eventually, it’ll go bad.
How long does vegan cheese stay fresh? Usually, when you buy vegan cheese from any kind of store, it’s supposed to stay good for about four months from the date of manufacturing if you haven’t opened it.
But, if you have opened the packaging, there is a chance that your vegan cheese will go bad after about a week. If your vegan cheese smells like peanut butter, don’t eat it.
Homemade vegan cheese, on the other hand, can only stay good for about four to six days, depending on whether there are any preservatives in it or not. Don’t eat somewhat moldy soy cheese; even slightly moldy soy cheese harmful and can make you sick. Only eat cheese slices that are fresh.
You should eat expensive vegan foods as they are the safest, have gone through product testing, and have preservatives that will keep them safer for longer.
How to Know If Your Vegan Cheese Has Gone Bad
When your vegan cheese goes bad, you’ll know it. How long does vegan cheese stay fresh? You’d notice spoiled cream cheese, so you should be able to tell when your vegan cheese has gone bad, too.
There will be some molding happening around your vegan cheese when it expires. Look for green or white mold, as moldy soy cheese is harmful to you. No one will recommend consuming that.
The mold will look different from the cheese itself. It usually looks like any other mold on any kind of food. There will be a few tiny spots on the cheese slices.
You may also see round, furry spots growing on the surface of your vegan cheese, as you would see in dairy cheese. The mold will usually be dark green to almost black. There may be tiny, downy hairs on it as well. This is an obvious sign that you shouldn’t eat that cheese anymore.
Along with that, you should be able to smell a foul smell if you sniff your vegan cheese from up close. If it looks and smells bad, it has gone bad!
As with hard cheeses, you can cut off the moldy parts, and the rest should be fine.
Do You Have to Refrigerate Vegan Cheese?
In most cases, vegan cheese can be kept without refrigeration if it is unopened. But, if you’ve opened your vegan cheese, it’ll need to be refrigerated. Refrigerated foods go bad no matter how airtight a container you’re using. Use your vegan cheese shortly after opening it to avoid eating bad cheese.
People who eat expensive vegan food, like cheese, can keep these unrefrigerated for about a day once opened. Regular cheese manufacturers can’t do this.
You can also get easier shred cheeses or firm slice if you keep your vegan cheese in the refrigerator. Remember to look at the expiration date; expired vegan cream cheese spread can be harmful to you as well.
Is Vegan Cheese Good After a Week?
Vegan cheese needs to be refrigerated after being opened. Any kind of pre-cut vegan cheese like shreds, slices, cream cheese style spreads, blocks, etc., will need to be refrigerated. These vegan cheeses last less time than raw cheeses.
You can eat most of these kinds of refrigerated vegan cheese after a week, depending on the brand.
Always check the “best by” date on the box of your vegan cheese before eating it. Otherwise, you may encounter serious health problems.
Does Vegan Cheese Taste Good?
Veganism isn’t for everyone. Those who love animal life so much that they refuse to be anything but vegan, and those who are vegan for certain health reasons, can suffer from the lack of choices in their diets.
But that doesn’t mean that their life is a living hell. Vegan foods like vegan cheese can taste bland compared to their counterparts. That’s the real challenge for vegans: finding dishes that pack as much punch as their meat and dairy counterparts.
It is granted, that not everyone’s taste buds are the same. Some people do like the taste of vegan cheese. But some people must endure eating this kind of food. Either way, try different brands and styles to find the vegan cheese that is best for you.
So, no, vegan cheese is not genuine cheese, nor will it ever have the same rich, tangy creaminess to it. But it doesn’t mean it tastes bad, either. Shredded cheeses in mozzarella or cheddar style can taste good and can become your favorite vegan cream cheese, for example, if you seek a vegan substitute for a dish you love.
Some people find vegan cheese bland and tasteless at first, but eventually, they adapt to the unique taste. It all depends on the people that are eating the cheese.
Do you find vegan cream cheese good? Or do you like dairy-based cream cheese-style spreads? If you’re on a vegetarian diet, you can eat both cream cheese and dairy cheese whether you like the texture or not. But the same is not true on a vegan diet, so you need to find the right brand to eat vegan cheese for your needs.
Is the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Vegan or Not?
Regular Philadephia cream cheese is not vegan. Recently, however, Philadelphia made a vegan-friendly cream cheese spread for Tesco stores in the United Kingdom. This plant-based vegetarian cream cheese is made from a nutritious blend of almonds and oats. The manufacturer promises that this vegan cream cheese is just as tasty and creamy as the original cream cheese.
Philadelphia cream cheese contains about the same kind of ingredients as other brands of cream cheese, like milk, salt, cream, and carob bean gum. The vegan counterpart underwent two years of experimentation and testing to taste as good as it does. This is why some brands of vegan cheese are better than others.
Can You Get Sick from Vegan Cheese?
It’s a sad thing for vegans, but yes, you can absolutely get sick by getting food poisoning from vegan food like vegan cheese.
When we think about getting food poisoning, we think about getting it from foods like meat, seafood, eggs, and cheese, but that’s not always the case. You can get food poisoning from plants and plant-based foods as well. This is because of the bacteria plants, and plant-based foods can carry. These types of foods can be corrupted with other naturally occurring parasites, toxins, and viruses as well.
So, the lesson is that you need to check, wash, and clean whatever type of food you’re eating. It’s always better to be safe by taking precautions.
How Can Vegan Cheese Be Made Without Any Milk?
Vegans aren’t supposed to eat anything that isn’t plant-based. So, they’ve come up with their own ways to match the non-vegetarian lifestyle.
Thankfully, modern science has helped improve different types of recipes for vegan foods eating vegan cheese.
You can make a paste out of cashews and add other ingredients. This is one way of making vegan cheese. They make for a very healthy cheese as well.
But, only using cashew nut as the main ingredient for vegan cheese can be very unethical because of some issues with the farmers of this nut. Different oils like coconut oil are being used for making vegan cheese. But there’s a problem with using too much of these oils: coconut oil has high cholesterol.
For now, coconut oil is being used for making vegan cream cheese, despite other ethical issues and being high-calorie.
The future holds many possibilities for vegan cream cheese. For example, using vitamins like B12 (also found in dairy milk) to make vegan cheese may be key to making it closer to the dairy cheese stocking store shelves. In the past, vegan cheese was nothing compared to what it is now. The future will bring new recipes as well.
Final Words
Veganism is not something people hate nowadays as they used to even a few years back. In the past, vegan food was only sought out by people with medical concerns. Nowadays, more and more people are cutting down on meat and starting to lead a healthier lifestyle. This has changed the reputation of plant-based foods like vegan cheese.
Even though a vegan diet can be healthy, you have to be careful about what you’re consuming. If the question is, “does vegan cheese go bad?” the truth is that vegan cheese will last for a shorter amount of time than you might want it to.
