Structure Formation in Dairy Cheese and Plant‐Based Cheese Analogues: A Review

ABSTRACT Cheese functionality emerges from the hierarchical organization of its components, in which casein micelles assemble into a heterogeneous, weakly bonded network that entraps fat and water in a structured manner. Replicating this in cheese analogues remains challenging, as most systems rely on fundamentally different ingredients and structuring routes. In this review, structure formation in dairy cheese and plant‐based cheese analogues is analyzed following a multi‐length scale perspective, from molecular interactions to mesoscale organization and macroscale functionality. Particular emphasis is placed on the distinction between bottom‐up assembly, characteristic of natural dairy cheese, and top‐down structuring, typical of processed cheese and cheese analogues based on plant polysaccharides and/or proteins. Dairy cheese forms through the destabilization and aggregation of casein micelles into dynamic, particulate networks, whose connectivity, heterogeneity, and interaction strength govern properties such as hardness, meltability, and stretchability. In contrast, cheese analogues are primarily structured through processing‐induced gelatinization, aggregation, and phase organization, often resulting in markedly different microstructures and rigid networks with limited melt and stretch behavior. By comparing these structuring routes, this review highlights that differences in functionality arise not only from composition but also from how components are organized at the mesoscale. Design strategies for cheese analogues are therefore discussed in terms of achieving mesoscale equivalence, either by tailoring top‐down processing to mimic dynamic network behavior or by developing bottom‐up assembly approaches using precision fermentation‐based or plant‐derived building blocks. This structure‐driven perspective provides a framework for the rational design of next‐generation cheese analogues with improved functional performance.