Distinct mechanical signatures of dairy and plant-based cheeses

Plant-based cheeses account for about 1% of U.S. retail cheese sales and often fail to match the texture and flavor of dairy cheese. Here we compare three commercial dairy and plant-based pairs, cheddar, feta, and mozzarella, with texture profile analysis (n = 60), tension, compression, and shear tests (n = 219), constitutive artificial neural networks, and a consumer panel (n = 306). Plant mozzarella is at least five times stiffer than dairy mozzarella at small strain, yet softer and less cohesive under 50% compression. Plant feta matches the initial stiffness of dairy feta but shows a peak in its shear response. Plant cheddar differs in both stiffness and shear response. Model discovery selects first-invariant models for all six cheeses, but no model term separates the two groups. Consumers rate 68--78% of attributes "just about right" for dairy cheeses and 29--38% for plant-based cheeses. These single-product comparisons define product-specific targets for plant-based cheese design.