Really, the disqualification is probably better publicity than winning the award itself. If someone told me some vegan cheese won a "Good Food" award, I would assume it was related to eco- and social-consciousness. Learning that it was so delicious that the dairy industry schemed to take away the award tells me they're afraid of the competition.
When Seiko beat the Swiss at their own mechanical watch accuracy competitions, they decided to cancel the long running prestigious competition entirely instead of make a better watch.
Capitalism breeds innovation!
Same with Japanese Scotch whiskeys absolutely running the table on ones from Scotland in competitions.
That's partly because "Scotch" is a protected label. You can only call a Whisky Scotch if it was distilled with a certain technique, from certain grains, by certain companies, and matured in certain casks for a certain amount of time. All of it is regulated.
Japanese whisky doesn't have these limitations. They can just do whatever makes it taste good.
If it doesn’t come from loch ness it’s just sparkling whisky
Oh she's sweet but she's Seiko, a little bit Seiko
Indeed, and while they might have been initially furious at the snub, this is going to wind up being VERY good for business. Now they have an incredible story to tell, complete with mystery and intrigue that consumers love. Their marketing department must be salivating right now.
Right, first thing I thought when I read this is “where can I get some of that ‘cheese’”
Yeah, well, you can't. It's only available to restaurants, and isn't ready for retail. That's one of the stupid reasons they can't have their stupid award. Stupid sexy cheesish.
“Our cheese is so good they had to disqualify us” would be my new slogan so fast.
Wasnt that what they did with monty python's holy grial when it was banned in norway*?
I'm closer to a carnivore than a vegan, but if something is good, it's good. I'm not going to hate on something delicious because I feel threatened by someone else's life choices.
Don't worry, farmers; if I start eating vegan cheese I promise I'll make up for it in beef consumption.
A lot of vegan "alternatives" are actually really good when you know what you're doing with them. I will take tofu or mushrooms over meat any day tbh. Problem is some people don't know that and will just prepare tofu like it's meat, and then wonder why their tofu tastes like shit.
Same. I had some green Thai curry "duck" at a vegan restaurant once and it was the bomb!
Let me see if I get this right: they get disqualified for containing an ingredient that hasn't been certified as edible (kokum butter) and is usually used in cosmetics, and there is no evidence of Big Cheese being the reason for the disqualification, other than the owner of the company saying it.
But it is still Big Cheese' fault?
It's even worse than that. The makers aren't even sure what was in their product to begin with.
Zahn says the kokum butter shouldn’t be an issue anyway: The company has since replaced it with cocoa butter, which does have GRAS certification. Initially, he told the Post the cocoa butter version was what he submitted for the awards, but after this story was published he said he determined that it was in fact the kokum butter version. (According to Weiner, Climax submitted an ingredient list that included kokum.)
So it might have been labeled with having kokum butter, it might not. Who knows? Seems to depends what answer is needed at the time.
Also,
Climax, it turns out, wasn’t just a finalist — it was set to win the award, a fact that all parties are asked to keep confidential until the official ceremony in Portland, Ore., but was revealed in an email the foundation sent to Climax in January.
If I'm reading this correctly, out of all the contestants, only they knew they won. Makes it a further stretch that it was a dairy company that "out" them as they wouldn't have known that the vegan cheese won.
My guess for the change about GRAS was it most likely was assumed everyone would only submit GRAS items, and since someone broke that non-spoken rule then they had to make it a clarified rule. It is something you'd just assume everyone made sure their food was most or less FDA approved (which is a logical assumption).
The Washington Post article is much clearer about this whole issue (which is linked to in this badly written Boingbonk article.)
Kokum butter is edible and occasionally used to make chocolates and other confections.
It was disqualified for having an ingredient that was not GRAS(generally regarded as safe). Even GRAS is a pretty low bar for food safety.
Holy shit, there's a decent vegan cheese? I like my meat but I understand that the current status quo isn't sustainable, and cheese is the number two thing the vegan industry has been struggling with making a good substitute for (number one being bacon.)
Vegan blue cheese
So just the mold without the dairy? 🤔
The article suggests it’s bacteria creating the milk from plants rather than cows and then normal cheese past that
However the article also says the dairy industry wasn’t the one complaining about it
The dairy and meat lobbies are something else. It’s like smoking in the fifties.
It’s well established that there are serious health concerns when you consume animal produce (not to mention environmental and animal welfare ones), yet the industry keeps pushing back on plant-based alternatives.
I'm surprised, I've had all sorts of vegan cheeses and they all taste like murder
I've had a few good vegan cheeses. Not all of it is 1 to 1 with the real deal, but a lot ends up being good in its own way. Just wish it wasn't so damn expensive. Hopefully that changes over time. Lactose doesn't agree with me so the more (affordable) non-dairy options there are, the happier I am.
Anyone got the actual link to buy this cheese?
While we're at it, I need recommendations for decent Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Asiago with a melting point below 300F.
I make a lot of Focaccia stuffed with cheese and jalapenos, as well as pizza, but it would be nice to be able to serve a guilt free option to my more discerning guests.
Big Milk will not accept any threat to their cash cow! This is outrages!
I just wanna try this cheese.
I dunno, I think I'm on the side of "it might taste great but if it's vegan it doesn't meet the definition of cheese."
Unbelievably shitty ragebait journalism.
The traditional cheesemaking company is freaking out (really?) about Climax Blue, especially because the vegan cheese was so delicious that it had slated (it had slated did it?) to win the overall competition
Though yes, there is a bit of controversy here, but at least the Washington Post tries to explain it in a less incredibly-biased way - https://wapo.st/3xQCcYX
So what is it called, so I can get some?
Edit: Climax Blue yes really
Look, I dislike blue cheese purely for the flavor, but I'll be damned i didn't want to try this
You can really taste the feet.
That is a rather clickbaity title, with some rage baity jpurnalism right there.
I was going to post the original wapo article, but then I saw wapo wouldn't even let me read the whole thing. I don't knowingly link to articles that are paywalled.
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