Lab-grown cheese is coming – but would you eat it?

In a modest building in Stratford in East London, the British Start-Up Better Dakiyy makes a cheese that discusses the taste like a real thing.

He hopes to bring the cheeses grown in the laboratory to our tables in the next few years.

However, according to the Development Board of Agriculture and Garden Plants (AHDB), it has recently been a tendency away from meatless foods.

The legal research organization says that plant -based cheese sales in the UK decreased by 25.6% in the first quarter of 2025 and Cow cheese sales increased by 3%.

One reason for this, AHDB, BBC, the small number of vegans in the UK – only 1% of the population (vegan community puts 3%), milk cheese is much less than the amount of eaters and a slightly decrease in recent times.

The vegan community insists that the meatless food market is “competitive” and stable.

Other reasons may be concerns about health and price. A Last Government Survey The fact that food is ultra -processed – a significant challenge with vegan cheese – found that the second biggest concern for consumers, the first is the cost. AHDB says plant -based cheese is usually more expensive than cow cheese.

Are these efforts a recipe for success or disaster? Some think that the coming years offer an opportunity.

In the Netherlands, this vegan cowboys are waiting to bring the cheeses to the United States this year and to Europe in three to four years due to regulatory barriers. The reason for this is that laboratory -made cheeses are considered as a “new food” and therefore need EU approval to go up for sale.

General Manager Hille Van Der Kaa admits that vegan cheese appetite is now low, but the company aims to a “quiet revolution” by changing the cheeses that people often think of.

“If you get a frozen pizza, you don’t think what kind of cheese is on it,” he explains. “So it is quite easy to trade.”

Meanwhile, the French company is standing in Ovation, the USA in the United States and in 2027 in England and Europe plans to be launched.

And in Stratford, London -based Better Dikay has not yet released the cheese grown in the laboratory because it would cost very expensive.

However, General Manager Jevan Nagarajah plans to launch the price in three or four years, which he hopes to be closer to those seen in a Cheesemonger.

So is it good?

More Better Difeden – a stable carnivoler and milk dedicated – invited me to the laboratory to nud the holes in this new cheese.

Currently, the company only makes cheddar because vegan sees hard cheeses as the largest “quality gap” in milk cheeses. Blue cheese made Mozzarella and soft cheese, but argues that the proteins in dairy products do not make a big difference in taste.

The process begins with genetically modified yeast to produce the key protein in milk instead of alcohol. Jevan says this is the same technique used to produce insulin without having to harvest pigs.

Other companies also use bacteria or fungi to produce casein.

After this precision fermentation, the casein is mixed with other milk components required for plant -based fat and cheese, and then the traditional cheese process occurs.

After trying the three -month, six -month and 12 -month -old era of Better Dekley, I can say that they are closer to what is more real than I tried. The young cheese was perhaps a little more rubber than normal, and the larger ones are more clearly salty. In a hamburger, cheese melted well.

Jevan acknowledges that there is a place to improve. The cheese I tried is made in the laboratory, but in the future, craftsman cheesemakers want to use non -milk “milk” in their laboratories to improve the taste of cheesemakers.

Since the company could not use milk oils, it was forced to “optimize plant -based oils to make the taste better.

“If you have experienced plant-based cheeses, many have flavors and typically they come from trying to use hazelnut-based or coconut oils-and they give flavors that are not normally.” Says.

In the meantime, these vegan cowboys still focus on easy -to -reminising cheeses such as pizzas and hamburgers, while standing Ovation, Kazembert, including Camembert, says.

Will these new cheeses find their matches?

There will be a long order. According to an AHDB questionnaire, 40% of those who bought vegan cheese in the market last year did not buy again-suggesting that there may be a turn.

Damian Watson of Vegan society points out that similarity may not even be a good thing.

“Some vegans want the taste and texture of their food to be meat, fish or milk, and others want something completely different,” he says.

And Judith Bryans, General Manager of Industry Body Dışy UK, thinks that the status quo will remain strong.

“There is no evidence that the addition of products grown in the laboratory will move away from the existing market, and it continues to see where these products will fit in terms of consumer perception and price.”

However, both better dairy products and these vegan cowboys make partnerships with cheese manufacturers to increase production and keep costs low, and standing applause has already made a partnership with BEL (Babybel producers).

Yvan Chardonnens, CEO of Standing Ovation, hopes that the latest popularity of cheese is the first wave in vegan “analogues” due to quality, and hopes it will heal in the next stage.

In addition to existing concerns about a shrinking vegan market, taste, quality and price, ultra -processed foods problem is a problem that these companies should deal with.

Laboza deficiency claims that there is no cholesterol and that lower amounts of saturated fat in laboratory cheese can increase health benefits and any cheese is processed.

Sensitive fermentation may allow manufacturers to remove many ultra -processed elements of existing vegan cheeses.

Hille argues that this is a matter of perception. Although people have a “romantic view” of milk farming, they are now “completely industrialized” – a point supported by the AHDB questionnaire and 71% of consumers see dairy products naturally.

“I can’t say that this is a really traditional, natural type of food.”

“We have an important task to show people how cheese is made these days.”