This Vegan Camembert Cheese Is Made From Sunflower Seeds

There’s a new vegan range of cheese products – and they’re made from superfoods.

The latest from superfood-focused brand Spero Foods is a line of dairy-free cheeses made with a sunflower seed base. The cheeses clock in at more than five grams of protein per serving — the highest amount of protein in any plant-based cheese and contain more than 90 times the antioxidants of dairy-based cheese.

According to the California-based company, its vegan cheeses “are the most healthy, sustainable, and delicious cheeses on the market.” The dairy-free range, which includes several varieties of chevre, camembert, and a vegan cheesecake, comes packed with protein, minerals, and vitamins like iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamin E and antioxidants, “in contrast to typical plant-based ‘dairy’ which has little to no nutritional value.”

Company founder Phaedra Randolph launched the healthy food brand in 2016 after battling chronic illnesses including migraines, IBS, and seizures at the age of 17.

“Many people suffer from similar health challenges, but find it difficult to veer from their favorite foods—eggs and cheese being top among them,” Randolph states. “It has been my mission to turn the foods that are good for us into the foods that we crave. And we’ve done that.”

Spero also makes vegan eggs, a liquid egg product marketed as “Scramblit” that looks, cooks, and tastes like chicken eggs. According to Spero, Scramblit beats regular eggs “twice over,” with 10 grams of protein per serving. That’s even more protein than its chief vegan egg competitor, the JUST Egg.

“Our egg and cheese products are both delicious and sustainable on two fronts: They provide amazing nutrition that occurs naturally, and they’re produced in a way that limits impact on the environment (unlike the production of dairy and nut products),” Randolph said. “So, we are making significant strides towards solving two of the world’s most pressing concerns: the critical epidemic of disease, along with the lesser known crises of climate change and environmental degradation.”

Spero Foods is part of the emergent dairy-free market sector. Nondairy cheese is expected to take leaps like that of vegan milk. According to data reporting group Mintel, the dairy-free milk market is valued at more than $2 billion as of 2017. Demand for vegan cheese is seeing a similar trajectory, expected to reach a value of more than $1.7 billion by 2023.