No, fermentino products are not vegan cheeses and we will explain to you why.
Vegan cheeses are products obtained by the processing of soja, other types of legumes (mostly lentils and chicken peas) or cereals, like rice. Depending on the product type, they can be hypocaloric and low-fat (e.g., tofu), a good protein source (e.g., products derived from the transformation of soja or other legumes) or a fibre source (e.g., cereal-derived products) and they are all naturally lactose-free.
Still, we must carefully read their ingredient list!
If we read labels attentively, we find products with denominations that recall some of the most famous and well-known cheeses on the market. In these cases, often, to reproduce and emulate the taste and consistency of real dairy products, it is necessary to use many ingredients, with names that are hard to understand.
When you read those long lists, you should always be put on guard because you are dealing with ultra-processed products: coconut oil, palm oil, xanthan, agar-agar, arabic gum, various aromas (natural or not), etc. These are all ingredients used to make the product’s texture and taste as similar as possible to cheese made from milk.
So, what differentiates fermentino products from most vegetal cheeses on the market?
There are three main differences: raw materials, process, and taste.
Fermentino products are indeed made from the fermentation of nuts.
To be sure that it is a fermentino, you must read the ingredient list. Just 3 simple ingredients: nuts, water and salt, and eventually the addition of herbs and spices, always completely natural and easy to identify.
We cannot say that fermentino products are hypocaloric, but the fats they contain are just those naturally presents in the nutritional composition of nuts.
Nuts contains mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, among which we find omega-6 (linoleic acid) and omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid) acidic fats.
The substitution of saturated fats with unsaturated fats in a balanced diet has positive effects on the organism because they contribute to the normalization of blood cholesterol levels. Moreover, fermentino products also represent an excellent source of vegetal proteins.
The “secret” ingredient of fermentino products is certainly the fermentation process. Fermentation is one of the most ancient food conservation processes: through the action of fermented bacteria, food pH decreasing allows the natural conservation of the product, without any other type of preservative.
It is a long and complex process that, in addition to favouring conservation, increases food digestibility, thanks to the destruction of the organic material. Simultaneously, it contributes to the liberation of new micronutrients, especially B vitamins (folic acid, niacin, riboflavin, etc.), essential to complete our nutrition.
With fermentation, food also develops enzymes, which make proteins and amides easier to digest and easily assimilable by the human organism.
Briefly, we can say that this process makes the product higher in quality.
Also, fermentino products differentiate from vegetal cheeses because they do not what to be like cheese, nor be an alternative to it.
The fermentation process and the resulting decreasing of pH give fermentino products a pleasant and unique sour note, different from typical cheeses. Their taste is indeed unique and distinctive, and it does not try to emulate known flavours.
Fermentino products represent a real new food category with the aim to enter everyone’s diet, both vegan and omnivorous. In this perspective, vegetal proteins integrate with animal proteins without substituting them, especially in a healthy and sustainable diet made of simple, additive-free, and preservative-free food.
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