Best Powdered Cheese | Taste-Tested & Reviewed
Whether you are baking a recipe tomorrow or packing your pantry for the long term, powdered cheese is always nice to have on hand. All powdered cheese isn’t the same, however. The best powdered cheese is worth finding, since it has the best taste, a longer shelf-life, and is a great value. There are several options to consider when it comes to powdered cheese for your pantry: nutritional content, quality, shelf-life, etc.
This is where we come in. We’ve researched the best powdered cheese, tested them, and now the results are in: the overall best, a budget option, and a bulk option. If you need some quality cheese powder in your pantry, one of our recommendations will keep you cooking.
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Best Powdered Cheese
Hoosier Hill Farm
Tasty, Versatile, and Inexpensive
Great for popcorn or long-term storage, this one brings some great taste at a budget price.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Hoosier Hill Farm gives the goods with this delicious cheese powder in a one-pound resealable container. It’ll hold in your pantry for a year before it develops a stale taste, so if you are an avid cheese powder user or just want to try it out, this is the way to go.
Specifications
- Weight: 1 pound
- Servings: 56
- Nutrition: 40 calories per 8g serving: 2g fat, 3g carbs, 1g protein
- Preservation Method: Industrial spray-dried
- Container: Screw top plastic bin
- Shelf Life: 1 year (the printed best-by date showed a 22-month shelf life)
- Manufactured: United States
Out of all of the options, this powder was the best-tasting with a strong, bold cheddar flavor. It also boasted the longest shelf-life of the ‘pantry brands’ with close to double the expected best-by date. The price isn’t bad, and with the container coming in at one pound, it was easy to compare cost per pound against other cheese powders. One drawback we found
It is easy to reconstitute into a cheese sauce by adding 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup milk, to 2 tbsp of cheese powder. Heat for 5 minutes at 180°F and you’re saucing!
Pick up Hoosier Hill Farm Cheddar Cheese Powder to pack some cheese in your pantry.
Bulk Powdered Cheese
Augason Farms
Bulk Packaged, Long Shelf Life, and (Usually) Inexpensive
The best powdered cheese for bulk buying goes on sale occasionally, so stock your pantry when it does.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Also available to buy at Walmart and Augason Farms Direct.
Augason Farms is the brand to stock up on, but only when they go on sale. Luckily, we track the sales daily over on our deals page, so you don’t have to guess whether you’re getting a good deal or not.
Specifications
- Weight: 3.25 pounds
- Servings: 87
- Nutrition: 35 calories per 17g serving: 2.5g fat, 10g carbs, 2g protein
- Preservation Method: Industrial spray-dried
- Container: Resealable #10 can w/ oxygen absorbers
- Shelf Life: 10 years (the printed best-by date verified a 10-year shelf life)
- Manufactured: United States
No matter how you look at it, over three pounds of cheese with a 10+ year shelf life for less than $30 will always be a good deal if you are looking to stock your pantry.
They rebranded the ‘cheese blend powder’ into ‘cheese sauce mix’ in 2024, but they are the same. The longevity can’t be matched, and the price and taste boost it over any of the other long-term food storage brands that come close. One downside is that they do use yellow dyes, even though it’s the same color as other brands that don’t use artificial dyes.
If you are looking to pick up some cheese powder in bulk, grab some Augason Farms Cheese Blend Powder whenever you find it on sale.
Dye-Free Powdered Cheese
Judee’s Yellow Cheddar
Quality, Great-Tasting, and Dye-Free
Using annatto instead of yellow dyes for coloring, this powdered cheese still looks appetizing and tastes great.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Also available to buy at Walmart.
Judee’s is a recognizable brand that specializes in pantry-staple powdered foods. They typically provide consistent quality, great taste, and a respectable shelf life. We found that their powdered cheese was no exception, and provided all of this, especially a great taste.
Specifications
- Weight: 11.25 ounces
- Servings: 23
- Nutrition: 60 calories per 14g serving: 4g fat, 4g carbs, 3g protein
- Preservation Method: Industrial spray-dried
- Container: Resealable stand-up gusseted pouch
- Shelf Life: 1 year (the printed best-by date showed a 20-month shelf life)
- Manufactured: United States
As the runner-up of our taste test, it outclassed other dye-free options and has a surprisingly long shelf-life to boot. One of our taste-testers went back multiple times to this one sprinkled on popcorn.
Judee’s has plenty of great baking and powdered food staples, so it’s no surprise that Judee’s Yellow Cheddar Cheese Powder is the best of the dye-free options.
Comparison Table
| Powdered Cheese | Recommendation | Price* | Calories/ Tbsp | Color | Shelf Life (Months) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoosier Hill Farm Cheddar | Overall Best | $15 | 40 | Yellow 5,6 | 22 |
| Augason Farms | Best for Stockpiling | $23 | 35 | Yellow 5,6 | 120 |
| Judee’s Yellow Cheddar | Best Dye-Free Cheese | $17 | 30 | Annatto | 20 |
| Hampton Cheddar | $29 | 30 | Yellow 5,6 | 10 | |
| Nutricost Cheddar | $30 | 25 | Annatto | 11 | |
| Legacy | $28 | 32 | Annatto | 120 | |
| Kernel Season’s Popcorn Cheddar | $18 | 0 | Turmeric | 31 | |
| Hoosier Hill Farm Premium | $19 | 30 | Annatto | 10 | |
| King Arthur Better Cheddar | $13 | 35 | None | 7 | |
| Healthier Comforts Organic | $15 | 35 | Paprika | 12 |
How We Compared Cheese Powder
Our research narrowed the field down to several powdered cheese brands that we tested: Legacy, Augason Farms, Hoosier Hill Farm, Nutricost, King Arthur, and a few more.
You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each. The main test that we conducted was a taste test (more info in that Taste section) that involved multiple taste-testers, powder sprinkled on popcorn, and reconstituted cheese sauce on top of macaroni noodles.
We focused on powdered cheese, rather than curds, freeze-dried shredded cheese, and a few other variations. We compared cheddar and blends, so we didn’t venture into all of the cheese types out there just for the sake of simplicity.
We’re always looking for new and better vittles for food storage, so if you have some powdered cheese that you swear by, let us know in the comments. We revisit most of our tested reviews annually, so we can always get it in the next roundup and see if it makes the cut and we can see if it will beat out our top picks.
Why Trust TruePrepper
Whether you are a prepper, a baker, or just looking for the best cheese, we did the taste testing and research for you.
I’m Sean Gold, and I’ve been reviewing powdered cheese for a few years now. I’ve been storing various food powders as part of my long-term food storage plan for a decade now, and use them regularly to rotate my stock.
Things like powdered cheese are one of the better taste tests our team looks forward to, since they all taste pretty good. Digging into the shelf-life details is also something I enjoy, since I store them in my prepper pantry.
What to Look For
The best cheese powder has several important features to look for:
- Value
- Taste
- Nutritional Content
- Quality
- Shelf-Life
When you get the right blend of these, you can find powdered cheese that will give you great versatility in your prepper pantry. Below, we break down what each of these features means for the different cheese powders that truly set themselves apart.
Value: Cost vs. Benefit
The amount of money you spend on something like powdered cheese shouldn’t blow out your entire budget. Don’t overspend or overdo it. If you only have $100 to get your prepper pantry started, going with a budget pick isn’t the end of the world. Budget according to your risk and your needs rather than just spending lavishly.
On the flip side, you don’t want to go too cheap or just plain get the wrong thing. Stocking up on powders that don’t have a great shelf life isn’t advised, and you’ll have stale-tasting meals on your hands before you know it.
Taste
Taste is pretty important, but you typically don’t eat any sort of powder on its own. To taste-test the different cheese powders, we turned to a few classics: popcorn and mac & cheese. We tried buttered popcorn dipped and sprinkled in the powder for the dry taste test. Next, we reconstituted the cheese powder into a stand-alone sauce for macaroni noodles.
We ranked the powders after each taste-test method and weighed the two equally when picking the winner. Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of overlap between dry powder and reconstituted powder taste ‘performance’. I’m pretty confident in saying that good-tasting cheese powder tastes good regardless of whether you reconstitute it.
Some powders did take longer to reconstitute or were clumpy when dry. As long as it didn’t add gritty texture during the taste-testing, we didn’t penalize any brand for taking longer to mix up or being more chunky when it’s dry.
Nutritional Content
Cheese isn’t necessarily known for its nutritional value, but not all cheese powder is created equal. Some powders lose nutrients (and taste) through the drying process. A robust taste is always good because you can use less powder for the same effect in your dish.
Quality
Your food storage should have consistent quality. Going through the trouble of storing and/or packaging food just to open it years later to find issues can be a huge letdown.
While we can only test batches we have on hand, online feedback makes it easy to discern the quality of brands that have been around for a while.
Plus, many of the other features we discuss can tell us about a brand’s commitment to quality, including what packaging and preservation techniques they use.
Shelf-Life
There is a wide range of shelf-life labels on powdered cheese because it comes in different packaging, with mylar or metal cans being the best, as we just mentioned above.
With the right packaging and storage in a cool, dry area, cheese powder can stay edible almost indefinitely.
Preservation & Packaging
There are two main ways to produce powdered cheese: freeze-drying and spray-drying. Here are the main differences:
- Freeze-drying – This less common and more time-consuming method, freeze-drying, usually involves placing the cheese in a freeze dryer and then breaking it apart into a powder. This slightly improves taste and provides a longer shelf-life versus spray-drying. It can also be done at home with your own freeze-drying equipment.
- Spray-drying – The most common method for dehydrating cheese involves preheating the cheese to melt it and then spraying it into a chamber to dry. The powder forms and leaves the chamber with the air continuously.
Almost all providers package the dried cheese into plastic or mylar bags with oxygen absorbers to further increase shelf life. If they don’t, they use metal cans for an airtight seal. Mylar bags are preferred for longer shelf-life, as we’ve hammered home in our mylar bag review roundup, and the ability to reseal them.
Does Powdered Cheese Taste Like Real Cheese?
Not really. Powder has a very different texture than most ‘traditional’ cheese forms, like sliced, balled, or melted.
One thing that a lot of people may not realize is that cheese powder is in a huge range of snack foods. You may see it sprinkled on popcorn at a theater, but it also makes most of the taste of:
- Easy Mac
- Chex Mix
- Cheez-Its
- Goldfish
- Cheetos
- Doritos
As a matter of fact, you can make your own Doritos at home with cheese powder:
Who Needs Powdered Cheese?
Powdered cheese can dress up a lot of dishes on its own, or it can be called for in recipes. Preppers will enjoy the ability to store a versatile food staple for years, which makes cheese powder essential for a prepper pantry.
Powdered cheese is suggested for these kits:
Pack some versatility in your food storage plan with cheese that has a serious shelf-life.
How We Review Products: We research thoroughly before selecting the best products to review. We have vast prepping and survival experience and bring in outside experts when needed. Hours on end are spent testing gear in stressful conditions and using specialized testing gear to verify claims. We assign performance criteria and impartially rate each tested item. Learn more about how we test.
Sources & References
All of our experience and the testing we do to find the best powdered cheese are useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical military and prepping experience:
Felix da Silva, D., et al. (2018). Physical and functional properties of cheese powders affected by sweet whey powder addition before or after spray drying. Powder Technology. Volume 323. Issue 1. Pages 139 – 148. (Source)
Rosa, E., et al. (2023). A comprehensive approach about comparison between drying technologies and powdered dairy products. Food Research International. Volume 173. Issue 1. (Source)
Salum, P., et al. (2023). Optimization of spray drying conditions for improved physical properties in the production of enzyme-modified cheese powder. Journal of Food Science. Volume 88. Issue 1. Pages 244 – 258. (Source)
Conclusion
Powdered cheese is a versatile baking and food-storage staple, plus it works as a great condiment. You can find some in bulk, with long shelf life, and with great taste. It’s not chock full of protein, but it has enough macro balance and versatility to include in any pantry.
Here are a few other reads our subscribers have also found helpful:
- Condiments and Seasonings to Stockpile
- Best Powdered Eggs for Long-Term Food Storage
- Survival Food List | Pantry Stockpile Plan and Checklist
See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.
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