Dairy Giant Applewood Scoops Major Food Award For Its Vegan Cheese

Dairy giant Applewood has scooped first prize at this year’s FreeFrom Food Awards for its vegan cheese.

The product, which was crowned best ‘Milk Product Alternative’, was created in collaboration with VBites – the vegan food company run by Heather Mills.

It sold out in just one day after launching in 230 Asda outlets last year – outselling its traditional cow’s milk counterpart.

Announcing the win on Instagram, Applewood gave a ‘huge thank you to our hard-working colleagues and loyal customers for your continued support’.

View this post on Instagram

? We are thrilled to announce that Applewood Vegan® was awarded GOLD at the thirteenth annual @FFFoodAwards. It competed with 25 other fantastic contenders in the ‘Milk Product Alternatives’ category, and was crowned as the winner. A huge thank you to our hard-working colleagues and loyal customers for your continued support. For full details on the awards please see: https://bit.ly/2SmHwMe #ApplewoodVegan

A post shared by Applewood Cheese (@applewood_cheese) on Apr 30, 2020 at 1:53am PDT

‘Thrilled and somewhat staggered’

Last year, Applewood’s Senior Brand Manager Lisa Harrison told Plant Based News: “All over social media people are posting fevered enthusiasm for the taste and the meltiness of this cheese, posting that they’ve been buying up to 14 packs at a time.

“It’s clearly the one they’ve been waiting for as Applewood Vegan finally solves that age-old problem of wanting to drop dairy but fearing you’d miss the taste of cheese. We are thrilled and somewhat staggered by the response.”

FreeFrom Food Awards 2020

This year’s FreeFrom Food Awards was hosted online due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Other winners within the milk product alternative category include Asda’s Mature Cheddar Alternative and Delamere Dairy Planted Coconut Drink with Cocoa.

You can watch the awards’ virtual presentation here