SONOMA, Calif. — Miyoko’s Creamery, the leading plant dairy brand known for its award-winning vegan cheeses and butter crafted 100% from plants, announced today the launch of a new breakthrough Cultured Vegan Pizza Mozz ready for immediate delivery to the food-service industry. The new mozzarella-style cheese tastes and performs like its cow dairy analog and can be used for pizzas, lasagnas, Philadelphia-style cheese steak sandwiches and Italian style dishes – anything that would require a melted mozzarella. The first food service partner will be one of Northern California’s cult favorite pizza chains, Pizza My Heart, debuting in their restaurants in Palo Alto, CA and Monterey, CA.
“This new mozzarella, like our new cheddar and pepper jack, is a true game-changer. Based on the reception it has received in taste tests, we know our Cultured Vegan Pizza Mozz will appeal to omnivores as much as it will to vegans and vegetarians,” said Miyoko Schinner, CEO and Founder of Miyoko’s Creamery. “We’ve challenged ourselves in our research and development with the goal of eliminating the excuses to eat more compassionately. People eat a lot of pizza — billions of slices a year. When products made 100% from plants taste and perform like their cow dairy counterparts, it makes it easy for people to switch, and in turn, eat healthier while being more compassionate to animals and our planet.”
“While Pizza My Heart has offered vegan options, we haven’t always done it well. We have long searched for a mozzarella with the taste profile that would appeal beyond the hardcore vegan community. This is the first vegan mozzarella that we’ve tasted that can do that,” said Spencer Glenn, CEO of Pizza My Heart. “With Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Pizza Mozz, we truly believe everyone, including our customers who are omnivores, have lactose intolerance or other dietary issues, don’t need to sacrifice taste and texture to enjoy our delicious pies and slices.”
There will be two versions of the new cheese available to the food-service industry, an organic version made with a cashew milk base and an allergen-free version, made with an oat milk and legume base and made with mostly organic ingredients. Both are non-gmo and made with whole food ingredients. Unique to this cheese is that it comes in a liquid form that is easy and simple to apply in any food service operation. When heated in an oven, the cheese takes on the traditional stretchiness of classic melted mozzarella. This innovation, along with the recipe and taste, was created by Miyoko’s Research & Development team out of the company’s headquarters in Petaluma, CA.
“Leveraging our deep experience with our vegan epicurean cheese wheels and butters, we are able to take a number of traditional cheesemaking techniques and some novel and proprietary food science insights to achieve cow dairy taste and performance using legumes and oats,” said Dan Rauch, Vice President of Research and Development at Miyoko’s Creamery. “Our team will continue to look at ways to unlock the power of plants while having them meet or beat the taste and performance of their cow dairy counterparts.”
For information on ordering Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Pizza Mozz, please contact Susie Picken Burch at susie@miyokos.com
About Miyoko’s Creamery
Miyoko’s Creamery, a registered B-Corp, is the maker of dairy products made 100% from plants, and was founded on the principle of compassion for animals and eliminating them from food production. Miyoko’s products are sold in over 12,000 retail locations across the US, including Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and thousands of other stores across the country and internationally in Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. Miyoko’s Creamery was created in 2014 by Miyoko Schinner, the bestselling author of several vegan cookbooks, a former co-host of the national PBS cooking show Vegan Mashup, and a founding board member of the Plant Based Foods Association. Once thought unattainable, Miyoko’s Creamery has set the standard for creating delicious, high performance cheese and butter made exclusively from plants by combining traditional creamery cultures and age-old cheesemaking techniques with microbiology and modern technology. The Creamery uses only real and organic ingredients like nuts, legumes, and plants with no fillers, additives, GMO or artificial ingredients. In addition to being cruelty-free to animals, Miyoko’s products are also better for the environment producing 98% less greenhouse gases than their dairy counterparts. For additional details on Miyoko’s Creamery, visit miyokos.com. You can follow the brand on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn at @miyokoscreamery.
About Pizza My Heart
Pizza My Heart is an award-winning California born and raised chain of pizza restaurants in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The chain was founded in 1981 in Capitola and maintains the welcoming California surf vibe it had from the early days. There are now 25 locations offering pizza by the slice and whole pies for dine-in, carry-out or delivery. Pizza My Heart focuses on locally sourced ingredients from smaller California farms, and is proud to have won numerous national and international awards for innovative and delicious pizza. Offering a plant-based pizza is consistent with the company’s values to continuously adapt to consumer interests and appetites. In addition to pizza, there are freshly made salads, craft beers from local breweries, wings, breadstix and a freshly baked cookie dessert. Selected locations offer gluten-free crusts or vegan whole pies.
There are restaurants currently in Blossom Hill, Burlingame, Campbell, Capitola, Cupertino, Emeryville, Evergreen, Isla Vista, Los Gatos, Monterey, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Jose, San Mateo, San Ramon, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Walnut Creek and Willow Glen.
