In the World of Cheese, a Drama Unfolds

When the winners of the prestigious Good Food Awards are named on Monday, the champ in the cheese category will be one made from milk. This typically would not be a surprise, except for this: The makers of a plant-based cheese had been told confidentially in advance (which is standard practice) that their blue cheese would win, reports AgFunderNews. However, Good Food Awards then informed California's Climax Foods that its entry had been disqualified at the last minute. The reasons for that disqualification remain a bit murky, but it appears that somebody—likely a rival in the dairy industry—raised red flags about the Climax product.

The head of the Good Food Foundation isn't divulging specifics but acknowledges as much. "I think there were a lot more eyes on this particular entrant than there would be on one of the hundreds of other finalists," Sarah Weiner tells the Washington Post. "Which made it more likely that someone with expertise would reach out." Otherwise, seeing a vegan cheese win a cheese competition would have been a "bellwether moment" in the industry, writes Emily Heil in the Post. Expect the same friction to play out on supermarket shelves over the very definition of cheese, she adds. As Janet Fletcher, who has been chronicling the controversy at the Planet Cheese newsletter, puts it, "If cheese isn't from milk, what is cheese?"

In this case, the reason for the disqualification appears to stem from Climax's product listing kokum butter as an ingredient, which is not designated as "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS) by the FDA. However, the company says it now uses cocoa butter anyway (and did at the time it submitted its cheese) and could have cleared that up if contacted. GFF insists it reached out, with no success. Climax also alleges that GFF changed its GRAS requirements after entries were submitted in January, an assertion backed up by the Post. Again, much drama. (More cheese stories.)