What does it take for a vegan cheese to please the public and emerge as a supreme cheese?

New Zealand's first-ever vegan cheese awards begin in Auckland today.

Over 30 entries from makers across the country will be assessed by a panel of judges across several different categories.

"Some cheeses do try to emulate your traditional dairy cheese, like the cheddars for instance might try and be really melty for your pizza or toasted sandwich," Vegan Society spokesperson Claire Insley told Mike Yardley.

"[But] particularly the more artisan cheeses made from cultured cashew nuts, they are their own thing very much. They are so good though, just really incredibly delicious."

Much to Mike's pleasure, there are vegan fetas.

"There are fetas... some really nice salty, yummy, fatty-tasting cheeses and the really good thing about vegan cheeses is there is no cholesterol in them, so they're really good options for people with cardio vascular problems."