Savour, an Aukland-based vegan cheese brand, took the crown for the Chilled/Short Shelf Life Award for its artisan dairy-free feta at this year’s New Zealand Food Awards.
The awards, which celebrate innovation in food and showcase the “finest local food producers in New Zealand,” described Savour’s vegan cheese as “something to be savoured!” The award-winning Casheta is an organic, cultured, aged cashew nut cheese, with a “melt in the mouth” and “creamy yet firm” texture. It replicates the “tang of good feta,” marinated in olive oil and rosemary. It is also GMO-free, probiotic-rich, and made from locally sourced ingredients where possible.
Savour, the boutique enterprise behind the dairy-free creation, seeks to create “delectable and tempting plant-based foods.” As well as the award-winning feta-style cheese, Savour has a range of other dairy-free offerings, including smokey chipotle cheese, toasted cumin and pepper cheese, and a beer-infused El Boracho cheese. Each is individually crafted and aged in a cheese cave, to ensure that each “deliver[s] on flavour, making them the perfect addition to any cheese board.”
The company is determined to make sustainable eating as appealing as possible, and supports the movement towards a plant-based diet “for health, environment and ethical reasons.” On the company’s website, founder Auda Finan draws upon her experience as a mother, and explains that doing right by your family “includes not only healthy eating but guarding their future environment as well.” She elucidates, “Eating a healthy plant-based diet is not only beneficial for bodies, it is the only sustainable way we can feed the human race without mass destruction of our planet and all its inhabitants.”
The award was presented by Eagle Protect, a BCorp which raises awareness about food safety. Via social media, the company described the task of presenting the award as an “honour” and praised Savour’s “amazing” vegan cheese. It added that the New Zealand Food Awards “really showcases how the food and beverage market is moving towards sustainability.”
New Zealand’s food industry is indeed facing growing calls to become more sustainable. Greenpeace recently urged the nation’s government to ban new dairy farms in a bid to protect the environment, and livestock farmers are even beginning to acknowledge that vegan protein is “the future.” And, with environmentally-conscious brands like Savour gaining recognition, the market is embracing sustainable vegan eating.
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This post was last modified on December 15, 2020 6:34 am