Product Review: Shredded Vegan Mozzarella
Let’s face it: Some vegan cheeses are so bad even overworked dairy cows would bemoan their existence. Many packages boast, “Melts like real cheese!” but their products leave you wondering, “Under what conditions?” as your broiled or stone fired pizza looks mysteriously the same before and after cooking.
Over the years, I discovered some are better than others. Yet I failed to keep track of which ones –
until now.
Objectively Objective
Whether or not a bag of shredded vegan mozzarella says it melts like dairy cheese, it should. What’s the point otherwise? Personally, I can’t recall ever buying any for a cold dish.
These products must be pleasant before applying heat, but more importantly, they must be pleasant afterward. This product review thus includes a taste and bake tests placing more weight on the bake test results.
Furthermore, to prevent excess subjectivity from creeping into my analysis, I used a dairy control: Sargento Natural Mozzarella Shredded Cheese, Traditional Cut. Having a conventional reference for my product reviews helps me objectively assess which plant-based alternative delivers the culinary and gustatory experiences a typical US-diner is expecting.
But most adorably, I accepted input from some local cheese fans 😍
The Contestants
At the time of gathering data for this post, I could find 7 US-nationally available shredded vegan mozzarella products:
- bettergoods (Walmart brand) Plant-Based Mozzarella Shredded Dairy-Free Cashew Cheese Alternative
- Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds
- Earth Grown (Aldi brand) Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds
- Follow Your Heart Shredded Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shredded Cheese
- GOOD PLANeT Mozzarella-Style Olive Oil Cheese Shreds
- Trader Joe’s Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shreds
- Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds
Kindly note…
I make no commission from the products and links herein. Please consider the effort behind this content, and espresso your support on Ko-fi if you can ❤️
Spectral Analysis
When I reviewed sweetened vanilla vegan yogurts, I was shocked to uncover some nearly-brown and/or watery custards. Consequently, I decided to rank them (as well as unsweetened plain vegan yogurts) by color and texture.
The same procedures seemed logical for shredded vegan mozzarella too. Remember, however, those products marked “closest to dairy control” are not necessarily my recommendations!
COLOR: Lightest → Darkest
- Trader Joe’s Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shreds
- Earth Grown Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds
- Follow Your Heart Shredded Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shredded Cheese
- bettergoods Plant-Based Mozzarella Shredded Dairy-Free Cashew Cheese Alternative – closest to dairy control
- Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds
- Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds
- GOOD PLANeT Mozzarella-Style Olive Oil Cheese Shreds
TEXTURE: Softest → Stiffest
- Earth Grown Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds – closest to dairy control
- Trader Joe’s Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shreds
- bettergoods Plant-Based Mozzarella Shredded Dairy-Free Cashew Cheese Alternative
- GOOD PLANeT Mozzarella-Style Olive Oil Cheese Shreds
- Follow Your Heart Shredded Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shredded Cheese
- Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds
- Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds
Part I, Taste Test
Separating mouthfeel and taste when ranking ingredients is practically impossible; both dimensions are experienced at roughly the same time! Some of the following products, therefore, share a slot with one having the next best texture and the other having the next best flavor.
5. GOOD PLANeT
If you were or have a crafty child, you may know exactly what I mean when I say GOOD PLANeT Mozzarella-Style Olive Oil Cheese Shreds taste like Shrinky Dinks smell.
They taste plasticky and feel rubbery. I don’t often use shredded (vegan) mozzarella cold, but if I did, I definitely wouldn’t use this one.
4. bettergoods
bettergoods Plant-Based Mozzarella Shredded Dairy-Free Cashew Cheese Alternative is…a choice. Although not rubbery like GOOD PLANeT, it’s also not creamy. These salty, dry, flour-coated shreds will help you remember to drink water –
and then cause you to need more.
3. Daiya – better flavor; Follow Your Heart – better mouthfeel
While some products herein are remarkably salty, Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds are reasonably so. This cheese alternative, therefore, actually delivers the mildly pungent notes you’d expect from real cheese!
It is a little stiff however. Follow Your Heart Shredded Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shredded Cheese is creamier, but not as rounded in flavor.
2. Violife – better flavor; Trader Joe’s – better mouthfeel
Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds are the stiffest shreds here. Yet what they lack in texture they compensate in flavor; these shreds are like Daiya, amped-up!
My spouse Chuck and I especially appreciated they aren’t floured to prevent sticking. (Honestly, they’re probably too stiff to stick anyway.) The milder but creamier Trader Joe’s Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shreds would be better on a salad any day.
1. Earth Grown
The mouthfeel and flavor combination of Earth Grown Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds is so similar to real cheese that Chuck, the biggest dairy fan I know, said he’d trust Earth Grown Cheddar Style Shreds on his tacos.
Need I say more? probably!
The flavor profile of this “cheese” is like Daiya: moderately salty with notes of culturing suggesting actual mozzarella. I had high hopes for how it melts…
Part II, Bake (Melt) Test
Even with such a straightforward question as, “How does each shredded vegan mozzarella melt?” I chose a simple recipe (English muffin pizzas) and controlled several factors:
- Brand of Every Non-“Cheese” Ingredient – I’m not brand-loyal by default, but when I create content, I source US-nationally available products. The following were used for this comparison project:
- Pan and Method of Preparing It – Two Calphalon rimmed nonstick baking sheets each lined with a Miu France silicone mat went to work.
- Appliances – As a business of one, I have only one oven!
- Cook and Rest Times – All pizzas baked for 10 minutes, then cooled for 5 before taking bites and notes.
The result was a clear winner! Can you guess which one?
7. bettergoods
I really wanted more from this Walmart brand, but bettergoods Plant-Based Mozzarella Shredded Dairy-Free Cashew Cheese Alternative melts worse than it tastes – and it doesn’t melt.
I wonder if its long name is meant to balance other shortcomings?
6. Earth Grown
Well, Earth Grown Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds disappointingly melt. I was convinced – even excited by – their creamy texture before cooking. They won my taste test!
Yet enveloping them in 400°F/230°C for 10 minutes did little to transform them into a cohesively melted pizza topping. I’d still buy them for my salads though.
5. Trader Joe’s
As I thought about what Trader Joe’s Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shreds look like after baking, funnel cake came to mind.
Individual shreds somewhat melt into one another, but their post-heat presentation retains some contour (unlike the dairy control). And they barely brown!
4. Violife
Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds is where I begin to have some hope in vegan cheese. I can still see individual shreds, but overall, the meltability of Violife is OK.
3. Follow Your Heart
Follow Your Heart Shredded Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shredded Cheese is very white – but it melted!
…mostly. I’d buy it on sale.
2. GOOD PLANeT
GOOD PLANeT Mozzarella-Style Olive Oil Cheese Shreds prove that some people eat with their eyes. In any case, my family fought over these evenly melted rounds as soon as the ones with my winner were gone!
1. Daiya
Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds even brown like real mozzarella!
If you’ve previously tried and disliked Daiya shreds, I recommend trying them again. The vegan cheese company recently added oat cream to this recipe. An odd sweetness I recall from years ago is gone, and most importantly –
it melts perfectly.
Parting Notes
vegan pizza, anyone? Look for Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds. Their flavor is well-balanced; meltability, unmatched by any other US-nationally available shredded vegan cheese.
However, if you simply need a salad topping, look for Earth Grown Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds. Unlike the stiff Daiya shreds, these are as creamy as cold dairy cheese with a very similar flavor profile.
And if you prefer to keep only one cheese for all applications in mind, then Follow Your Heart Shredded Dairy-Free Mozzarella-Style Shredded Cheese is fair at all temperatures. (You need to live near an Aldi for Earth Grown anyway.)
Did I miss one?
Leave a comment if you see a shredded vegan mozzarella at Walmart, Target, Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and/or Whole Foods Market that’s not on this list. I’d love to test it against my winner and update my content!
Please know I support and shop local when I can. Everywhere I’ve lived – and the number of places is many and growing – I have discovered numerous small companies making fantastic vegan alternatives.
Yet as much as I commend them, they are not the focus of this blog. My goal instead is to curate and present information that travels with me to wherever I go, and then travels again from wherever I am to wherever you are ❤️
