How Long Can Refrigerated Vegan Cheese Be Left Out
If you have vegan cheese which needs to be kept cool, hence refrigeration is required, we would recommend not having it out more than a few hours.
But this also depends on the ingredients used and the ambient temperature outside of the fridge.
Supermarket Vegan Cheeses Made With Starches and Coconut Oil
If you have a coconut oil and starch based vegan cheese, one you are likely to find in a supermarket store, such as Violife.
You can have this vegan cheese out for hours because of its oil content which will help preserve the vegan cheese whilst its outside of the fridge and stop it getting mouldy.
It will also help with it sweating if it is warm outside of the fridge.
But What About Artisan Vegan Cheeses
Artisanal vegan cheeses which are mostly made from wholefood ingredients can too be left out, but we would not recommend as for long.
We have had bad experiences with these types of vegan cheese drying out, going mouldy, sweating and other bad results after removing them from a cool area or fridge.
How To Store Vegan Cheeses
Most of the vegan cheeses that are meant to be kept cool should be stored at a temperature of around 4 degrees celcius.
When storing vegan cheeses at this temperature, we have successfully had them last many months and even beyond their best date, without any issues.
Again there are other variables with this, and that is with the packaging.
Some vegan cheeses come packaged in paper which is not air tight or sealed in any way. When we have these cheeses, they do not last anywhere near as long in a fridge or outside of the fridge because the ambient air around them can come in to contact with the actual cheese.
The great news is that if you are storing vegan cheeses in the freezer, you should have them last months. We have tested this with a number of vegan cheeses and they have always come out after defrosting and tasting fresh and with no issues to the texture.
