I picked up some Violife Cream Cheese at the Grocery Outlet recently to try it out. I don’t buy much cream cheese but I was tempted to try this product as it looked pretty, sitting there in a little paper box instead of a plastic container. Also, I’d read something recently about the benefits of starting the day with medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) and thought, what the heck, I’ll see how this works out (the product is primarily coconut oil, which is high in MCTs).
As luck would have it, I also picked up some sun dried tomatoes at the same time – another item I hadn’t bought in ages – and it turns out they go perfectly together! I’ve had several days now of starting off with sourdough or whole wheat bread with Violife cream cheese and sundried tomatoes and was happy as a clam! I don’t know if it was the MCTs, but these breakfasts seemed to give me a bit more energy through the first half of the day, including my long walk to work. I definitely wasn’t flagging, at the very least.
The texture (mouthfeel!) and flavor of this cream cheese is close enough to dairy-based cream cheese that I can’t imagine why we need the dairy version any more. Let’s look a closer look from a nutritional angle.
Violife Cream Cheese: ingredients and nutrition facts
Here’s the ingredient list for the Violife cream cheese. I appreciate that they add vitamin B12 to the cheese. I know we can take B12 as a supplement (and vegans should) but it’s helpful when manufacturers add it to vegan products.
Ingredients: Water, Coconut oil, Modified Tapioca & Potato starch, Potato Starch, Salt, Glucose, Natural flavors, Rowan Berry Extract (to help maintain freshness), Calcium Phosphate, Lentil protein, Glucono Delta-Lactone, Citric Acid, Paprika Extract & Beta-carotene (color), Herbs, Olive extract, Vitamin B12, Powdered Cellulose added to prevent caking.
From the nutrition facts on product packaging (above), we can make the following comparisons to regular cream cheese. Violife’s vegan cream cheese has some plant fiber but no protein, while dairy cream cheese has a little protein but no fiber. Total fat content is similar while the Violife product has a bit more saturated fat but no cholesterol.
For me, the most important difference is in the breakdown of the saturated fat content. As mentioned earlier, the Violife product is rich in MCTs, thanks to the main ingredient being coconut oil. Coconut oil is the best natural source of MCTs, its fat being almost 50% lauric acid (C12) and 7-8% caprylic acid (C8) and capric acid (C10). The fats in cream cheese, like most animal products, are longer – palmitic acid (C16), followed by stearic acid (C18) and myristic acid (C14).
Overall, I would much rather eat MCTs present in Violife’s product than the longer-chain fats present in dairy, which are linked to elevated LDL cholesterol, increased cardiovascular risk, inflammation, and insulin resistance. Also note that consuming MCTs rather than animal fats is likely to help prevent cognitive impairment – see the data for lauric acid in this study, for example. Not saying we should eat coconut oil all day long, but it is a good alternative to dairy.
Now let’s look at Violife cream cheese from an ethical perspective.
Ethical rating for Violife Cream Cheese
I reviewed Violife’s vegan feta back in 2021 but 5 years have passed so I figure it’s worth taking another look at the company. Established in Greece in the ‘90s, Violife was acquired by Upfield Group in 2019, and then Upfield changed its name to Flora Food Group in 2024. This Violife cream cheese block product was launched in 2024.
Here’s a summary of how I feel about the social and environmental impact of Violife cream cheese, which I’m scoring 4.5 Green Stars:
- Violife specializes in plant-based dairy alternatives. Cheese is amongst the three worst foods in terms of the five major environmental footprints, so dairy substitutes are mission critical for the planet’s health.
- Perhaps the most important environmental metric of that first point is carbon footprint. A plant-based cheese product made from coconut oil has a much lower carbon footprint than the dairy-based equivalent.
- Violife’s parent company, Amsterdam-based Flora Food Group, is in the business of products made from plant-oils. I would say that it’s a little better than average in terms of ethics, for a company of its size. The copy on their website is frustratingly vague but their annual report provides more solid numbers such as this: “Flora Food Group products have 70% lower climate impact; require 70% less land and; use 60% less water compared to dairy equivalents.” Reductions in total company GHG emissions have been substantial too.
- The main ingredients – coconut oil and plant starches, are among the most sustainable ingredients that this kind of product could be made from.
- Being an EU-based company, the ingredients are a little more controlled than they would be in the US.
- Packaging consists of a cardboard box made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and an inner plastic wrap – about as minimal as it can be. Waxed paper or compostable plastic would be an improvement, if up to the job.
- If you’d like to see more details on Violife products, such as coconut sourcing, see this post on Violife Feta.
Overall, I think Violife has maintained standards over the last five years and is worthy of support. Do let me know, by posting a comment or contacting me, if you anything to add to this.
Summary scores (out of 5) for Violife cream cheese:
- 4.5 gold stars for quality and value
- 4.5 green stars for social and environmental impact
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Here are a few GSP articles relevant to this post:
Grocery Outlet Ethical Bargains 
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