Soft Spot Vegan Smoked Cheese — ENGINEERED
Munch or Dump rates Soft Spot Vegan Smoked Cheese by Soft spot ENGINEERED — score 30/90.
A lab-built dairy-cheese analog: water and refined starches thickened with coconut oil, held together by carrageenan, then flavored and dyed to taste like smoked Gouda. The cashews you'd hope for sit fourth, behind the starch.
Why this verdict
- Refined potato and corn starch plus coconut oil form the body, not real cheese
- Carrageenan stabilizer holds the texture together
- Flavor built from added 'vegan flavours', nutritional yeast and lactic acid
- Cashews are 4th on the list, behind the starch
- NOVA 4 reconstructed product engineered for mouthfeel
Ingredients (11)
- Water (safe) — Inert; just adjusts texture.
- potato starch (moderate) — Another refined starch thickener layered on top of the modified maize starch.
- Coconut Oil (moderate) — Highly saturated refined oil used to build creamy mouthfeel; calorie-dense and inflammatory in excess.
- Cashews (safe) — Whole nut adding unsaturated fat, protein and minerals.
- Corn Starch (moderate) — Pure refined starch for texture; empty carbohydrate.
- Salt (moderate) — Added sodium for flavour.
- Vegan flavours (moderate) — Undisclosed flavoring blend that manufactures the 'cheese' and smoke taste the food itself doesn't have.
- Carrageenan (moderate) — Stabilizer linked to gut irritation in some studies.
- Nutritional Yeast (safe) — Adds savory flavor and some B vitamins; a relatively benign inclusion.
- Lactic Acid (safe) — Acidulant for tartness and preservation; harmless.
- annatto (safe) — Natural plant-based coloring to give it a cheesy hue; cosmetic only.