Mini chol lactose free cheese
Eat Sustainbly recommended
Mini-Chol cheese has been reviewed by our team of dietitians, nutritionists and sustainable eating experts. The healthy and sustainable product rating considers the following: nutritional value, packaging, processing, food origins and food miles. Keep reading for details on the pros, cons and overall summary of this product.
Our rating
Pros
  • This product is the most nutritious dairy cheese alternative we've seen on the market, this is mainly due to it being made wth soy beans and sunflower oil, opposed to many others that are made with coconut oil
  • It contains 23g of protein per 100g of cheese - from both casein and soy beans
  • It's high in calcium as it's fortified with 730mg calcium per 100g cheese. This is important when choosing dairy alternatives as these foods are often our main source of calcium
  • It's much lower in saturated fat (with 7g/100g cheese), compared to other plant and animal cheeses we've found
  • It's lactose free
  • Vegetarian friendly as it contains non-animal rennet
Cons
  • This product is from Sweden, so has high food miles if you're in Australia. Remembering it's been transported refrigerated so uses more resources during the journey
  • It's packaged in soft plastic. This is needed to preserve shelf life (Sweden is far away) but is not great for the environment and it is not recyclable in Australia
  • The soft plastic packaging may contain plastic-associated chemicals (such as BPA, BPS, phthalates) which are known endocrine disrupting chemicals
  • This product can easily be perceived as a vegan-friendly cheese alternative, but it is not as it contains casein (a cow's milk protein) so is NOT SUITABLE FOR VEGAN DIETS
  • This cheese is ultra-processed, which increases points of contact for potential plastic exposure.
Summary

We recommend Mini-Chol soy-based cheese as a good dairy alternative for people trying to reduce their intake of dairy foods, for health or environmental reasons. It is the only cheese alternative we've seen that is not made with coconut oil, and it is fortified with calcium. So, although this product has only received 2/5 stars in our scoring system (mainly due to the packaging, processing and high food miles), it is the best option on Australian supermarket shelves. Let's hope for a soy-based, calcium fortified Australian cheese to hit supermarket shelves soon (if not already!).

 

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