Legumes as basic ingredients in the production of dairy‐free cheese alternatives: a review

Research into dairy‐free alternative products, whether plant‐based or cell‐based, is growing fast and the food industry is facing a new challenge of creating innovative, nutritious, accessible, and natural dairy‐free cheese alternatives. The market demand for these products is continuing to increase owing to more people choosing to reduce or eliminate meat and dairy products from their diet for health, environmental sustainability, and/or ethical reasons. This review investigates the current status of dairy product alternatives. Legume proteins have good technological properties and are cheap, which gives them a strong commercial potential to be used in plant‐based cheese‐like products. However, few legume proteins have been explored in the formulation, development, and manufacture of a fully dairy‐free cheese because of their undesirable properties: heat stable anti‐nutritional factors and a beany flavor. These can be alleviated by novel or traditional and economical techniques. The improvement and diversification of the formulation of legume‐based cheese alternatives is strongly suggested as a low‐cost step towards more sustainable food chains. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.