Vegan Blue Cheese Wins Good Food Award, Only Briefly

VEGAN BLUE CHEESE ONLY BRIEFLY WINS GOOD FOOF AWARD, GETS “DISQUALIFIED”

I don’t mind vegan food, though I must say I do mind some of the folks who only eat vegan food. Some of them tend to lecture the topic to a degree that would make a cult leader seem boring. But vegan food can be good. And, in truth, there’s quite a bit to say about the health benefits to be had when incorporating vegan into your diet. But I don’t think I’ve ever had a vegan cheese, and definitely not a vegan blue cheese. But it seems a new version of the latter somehow won a Good Food Award. Or did it win? Apparently, it seems to have only won the award briefly.

SURE, KOKUM BUTTER ISN’T DAIRY, BUT VEGAN BLUE CHEESE DISQUALIFICATION STINKS

For one, this must be one seriously tasty vegan blue cheese. For another, that seriously tasty vegan blue cheese must have made traditional (dairy) cheese makers just a bit nervous. And that seems to be exactly what happened, in terms of the brief Good Food Award victory. And if that sounds like a preemptive scandal to you, you’re right. The story broke in reporting by The Washington Post. The briefly victorious vegan blue cheese is named Climax Blue cheese. And for whatever reason, after briefly being named a finalist, the Good Food Foundation quickly disqualified it supposedly for having an ingredient, kokum butter, that doesn’t have GRAS certification.

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DID THE DAIRY INDUSTRY PANIC AT VEGAN BLUE CHEESE SUCCESS, PUSH FOR DISQUALIFICATION?

But it seems pretty odd to me that the Good Food Foundation didn’t already know the ingredients of all their cheese entrants. And the plot thickens from there, with Climax CEO Oliver Zahn accusing the Good Food Foundation of changing the rules post-haste after the dairy cheese industry freaked out and pressured him to do just that. The Good Food Foundation of course denies this, saying instead someone “complained” about the vegan blue cheese in the community. That sounds pretty generic as a denial to me. Sure, one could argue that since cheese is a dairy product that something without dairy can’t be a cheese. It’s certainly simpler than arguing about transgender people variously gendered sports.

But if the dairy industry wanted to minimize a vegan blue cheese becoming an ascendant topic for, ahem, consumption, the fact that you’re reading about this means udder failure. You can learn more about Climax Blue Cheese here.