Of course, all our ingredients are 100% vegan!

Since our products are mostly made from pure unprocessed plant foods (such as whole cashews or apricots) it’s easy to be sure those are vegan.

However we want to be sure everything we use is fully vegan, so we also need to make sure there’s no hidden factors.

For example, we verify that the coconut oil we source is ethical so you can be sure there’s absolutely no chance of using captured and enslaved monkeys in its production. 

We also verify, through certification, that the cultures we use are not grown on lactose as unfortunately many of the easier to obtain cultures and moulds are. Obviously the cultures we sell and use for our starter kits are fully vegan.

Ingredients such as sugar or lecithin are certified vegan. 

Many of our products have only 4 ingredients, including the salt and lactic acid bacteria cultures. All of our cheeses contain at least 75% organic cashews so you can be sure you’re only getting the good stuff. This is why we don’t recommend baking our Camembert Style – we don’t add extra oil, so although it will become more soft, it can never ‘melt’. There are many excellent vegan cheeses on the market that do melt, but you will find that their main ingredient is oil.

A few of our products (Camblue, True Blue, Beer-Washed Rind) benefit from a little added richness so we add around a teaspoon of coconut oil to each (approximately 2-3% of the whole product).

Our products are clean label and we don’t use fillers.

What is “Clean Label”?

Essentially, clean label means making a product using as few ingredients as possible, and making sure those ingredients are items that consumers recognize and think of as wholesome—ingredients that consumers might use at home.

Raw material water & carbon footprint.

Where possible we use ingredients that are locally sourced. However, obviously this is not possible with our main ingredient: cashews, or with coconut oil which we also use. One advantage of both these ingredients is that they can be transported by sea rather than air.

But let’s also look at production. 

Cashews: Like the now notorious almond, cashews require a lot of water to grow. But unlike US grown almonds, cashew trees are grown in their natural environment: the tropics. This means their water needs are fully met by rainfall (also known as “green water”) and don’t require additional man-made irrigation methods.

In addition, cashew trees have the ability to sequester carbon so they actually pull CO2 from the air.

Cashews also have useful by-products: the shell oil is used in things that must resist friction, heat, and acids, such as brake linings and clutch plates, and also helps make glue and lightweight carbon-composite products such as rockets and high-end kayaks. The naturally insect-repellant qualities of cashew wood and gum means they are favoured for packing cases and used in book-binding.

Coconut: Coconut plantations can cause deforestation similar to palm oil if controls are not in place. The coconut oil we use comes from the Philippines and Indonesia and is KRAV certified. This ensures that biodiversity is protected by a mixed-use plantation where the coconut trees are grown next to mango, banana and other trees. It is sourced from various smallholder farmers rather than large-scale monocultures.

To summarise, dairy substitutes made from cashews  are far more environmentally friendly than their dairy counterparts!

We have a strict supplier assessment process. 

At first we acquire detailed specifications for every ingredient. We need to to be able to trace everything back to its source.

Then we make an ethical assessment for every ingredient. Where possible we opt for locally produced ingredients or from other places where we know working conditions are protected by law. If an ingredient carries a high risk of worker exploitation we will check further to see where and how it is produced.

That’s why the cashews we use are sourced from a SEDEX audited factory. This means that workers are paid above minimum wage and are provided with protective clothing where needed. Most of the processing is done by machine but where shelling is done by hand, the cashews have been pre-steamed to remove the toxins in the shells. The farmers are also paid above 5% above the government controlled price.

The coconut oil we use in our Vegan Gold butter, Camblue & True Blue cheese is certified fair-trade. And absolutely no monkeys have been used to produce it.

The unrefined sugar we use in the pickle in the Apricolina is certified fair-trade.

We are certified organic by the Organic Food Federation.

UK organic standards require that 100% of the agriculturally derived ingredients used in a product must be certified organic. So for us, that means everything except salt and the laboratory grown lactic acid bacteria must be organic.

All ingredients including non-agriculturally derived ones, such as the lactic acid bacteria and salt must be specified by the supplier to be GMO free.

In addition to this, we have to pass stringent traceability tests and reconciliations to prove that we have a full record of each ingredient that is included.

Organic certification from our suppliers gives us extra peace of mind as farmers are required to prove a certain level of ethical practice such as reasonable conditions for their workers and no child labour.

All our packaging is either biodegradable or home or industrially compostable.

We use 3 different types of packaging:

PLA Sheet (commercially compostable): used as an inner wrap for Camembert Style, Camblue, Beer-Washed Rind, True Blue, Vegan Gold.

Vacuum pouch/bag (home compostable/biodegradable): used as an outer wrap for Apricolina, Vegan Gold, Classic Creamy Cashew and Smoky Creamy Cashew.

Boxes, paper & stickers: all are un-laminated, printed with vegetable inks and are home compostable and biodegradable.

We have, upon request, supplied retailers with cream cheese packaged in glass jars. However, although it’s easily reusable/ widely recycled, glass actually has a higher CO2 impact than recyclable plastic so we don’t offer this option as standard and prefer to opt for biodegradable pouches for our cream cheeses.

Zero waste:

If you are dedicated to being 100% zero waste, most of our products are suitable for you.

However you should be aware that the Aged Classic is coated in cheese wax which is not compostable. The technology for biodegradable food grade waxes is extremely new and specialist and is not available at all in the UK at present. It is possible to recycle cheese wax with Terracycle if there is a point near you. Or if you feel like experimenting, it is possible to make a candle from the wax.

When we send orders direct to our customers we may re-use plastic wrap that we have been sent. We also use re-usable (but not compostable or biodegradable) ice packs and metallic insulation on the main boxes. You are welcome to send any of these back to us for re-use.

No, the cashews are heat treated to allow the shells to be removed safely and to ensure that they are free from pathogens and safe to eat.

Our products are naturally fermented with lactic acid bacteria. However, this is to achieve the desired taste rather than for health benefits. We would recommend eating our cheeses simply for pleasure and accompanying them with a spoonful of unpasteurised pickles or sauerkraut to fulfil your probiotic needs.

We add little or no oil to our cheeses, so they will not melt.
They will go a bit softer, but mostly our cheeses are at their best eaten straight up.
If you would like to cook with the cheeses we would suggest incorporating them as close to the end of the cooking process as possible. For example: sprinkle chunks of camembert over a freshly cooked pizza or stir cream cheese into a pasta sauce right at the end. Alternatively make sure they are well contained in a mix – for example chunks of blue cheese could be delicious within a covered pie. The key is not to leave them uncovered where they will dry out.
If you would like to bake the camembert style, make sure it is well wrapped and drizzled with plenty of olive oil.

(Obviously the Vegan Gold butter melts beautifully though!)

Yes you can. In particular the ones without a rind freeze especially well. If you freeze and defrost one of the white rinded cheeses, the rind will thin out after defrosting but will grow back in a few days.

Not exactly. We’d recommend eating them by the dates on the label unless you are planning to freeze them. 

Whilst we don’t use any gluten in our recipes or kitchen, we are not certified gluten free.

All our products are made by hand by a small team in our unit in London. Each cheese is made with the utmost care and is a culmination of hours of research, expertise and nurture.

Yes of course! The rind is a natural, living fungus and contributes to the mushroomy flavour of a camembert. If you cut the cheese and leave it long enough we would expect the white rind to grow over, it is perfectly normal.