Fontina cheese is a type of Italian cheese named after the Valle d’Aosta region in northwest Italy, where it has been produced for centuries.
This cheese is known for its creamy, slightly nutty flavor and soft texture.
It is often used as a melting cheese in sandwiches, and can also be eaten on its own or paired with fruit or crackers. But is it vegetarian? Let’s find out.
Let’s start with the ingredient list.
Fontina Cheese Ingredients:
The ingredients for traditional fontina cheese include:
- Cow’s milk
- Rennet (an enzyme used to coagulate the milk)
- Salt.
Some types of fontina cheese may include other ingredients, like cultures or additives, but the basic recipe typically consists of just milk, rennet, and salt.
Rennet is a coagulating enzyme that is traditionally derived from the lining of animal stomachs, but it can also be derived from microbial sources, such as fungi or bacteria.
Now that you know the ingredient list, let’s go back to our main question “is fontina cheese vegetarian”.
Is Fontina Cheese Vegetarian?
The answer is: It depends. Some brands of fontina cheese use microbial rennet, which is suitable for vegetarians.
However, other brands still use rennet derived from animal stomachs.
To make sure you are only eating vegetarian cheese, here’s a list of brands that offer vegetraian Fontina Cheese:
-Belgioioso Fontina Cheese (available here).
- Boars Head.
- Clover Sonoma.
- Loleta Cheese.
- Reny Picot.
- Sartori.
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Conclusion:
Fontina Cheese can be vegetarian if rennet is derived from microbial sources.
