It also can be made from seeds, such as sesame, sunflower, nuts (cashew, pine nut, peanuts, almond) and soybeans; other ingredients are coconut oil, nutritional yeast, tapioca,[2] rice, potatoes and spices.

[4] Later homemade vegan cheeses were made from soy flour, margarine, and yeast extract.

[11] The expansion is driven by the increased inclination towards vegetarian sources, rising urban populations, and greater preference towards international foods.

[16] Labeling purely plant-based products as "cheese" is prohibited in the European Union and the United Kingdom.

[18] The CFIA later reversed the rejection and stated there was no objection for using the nomenclature "100% dairy-free plant-based cheese" provided that "it is truthful".

[17] In June 2017 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgement in relation to a German vegan food producer TofuTown, clarifying that purely plant-based products could not be labelled and sold as "plant cheese" or "veggie cheese" (Judgement in case C-422/16).

[21] In 2019, a Brixton, UK, vegan cheese shop was asked by Dairy UK to stop describing products as cheese because it 'misleads shoppers', although the store owners stated their "products were clearly marked as dairy-free.

[23] In 2018, the company was sued in New York in a lawsuit that alleged customers were misled by the label "vegan butter".

[24] Company founder Miyoko Schinner[25] is a leading advocate for free speech rights relating to vegan foods.

[28] As of 2024, several startups have developed vegan cheese products which aim to solve this difficulty by making cheese with precision-fermented casein produced by yeast rather than by cows,[31] with one company receiving GRAS designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Ingredients of hard or firm vegan cheeses includes natural agents such as agar, carrageenan, tapioca flour, and xanthan gum.

It must be aged with other methods, as ambient temperature and humidity monitoring, and culturing agents, such as rejuvelac, non-dairy yogurt, or kombucha (which are not recommended due to the risks involved in the fermentation process) and kefir grains that are recommended but not often used.