By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
For many people, mac and cheese is a comfort food. It’s salty and creamy and it can be a quick meal or snack. Vegan mac and cheese packages abound on supermarket shelves. VRG volunteer Mae Y. Seon and I evaluated 31 boxed vegan mac and cheese products from Annie’s, Banza, Daiya, Goodles, Grown as Foods, Jovial, O Organics, Pastabilities, Upton’s Naturals, and Wicked Kitchen.
We found lots of variations on vegan mac and cheese with flavors ranging from the traditional Cheddar cheese flavor to Jalapeño, barbecue, and truffle.
Preparation time for boxed vegan mac and cheese, according to package information, is generally short—boil water, cook pasta, make sauce, then mix pasta and sauce. Some varieties feature pre-made sauce; you just mix it in with the cooked pasta. Prep time varies from 6-12 minutes, depending on the product. Some vegan boxed mac and cheese packages come with everything that you need while others call for you to add unsweetened non-dairy milk and non-dairy butter to the sauce packet.
Most products report nutritional information both as purchased and as prepared. For products that did not included “as prepared” information, we calculated the nutrient content of a serving using unsweetened soy milk and Earth Balance margarine.
The labels on most products reported a serving size of 1 cup of prepared mac & cheese, although a couple of Banza products had a ¾ cup serving size. A serving of prepared vegan mac & cheese provided between 200 and 550 calories.
The products we looked at had 4 to 22 grams of protein per serving, making them a reasonable source of protein. Products highest in protein were Wicked Kitchen products that ranged from 18-19 grams of protein in a 1 cup serving and Pastabilities Protein Pasta Ruffles & Vegan Cheese with 22 grams of protein in a cup.
There was a lot of variability in fat in the products that we examined with a range from 1.5 to 18 grams of fat per serving. Saturated fat ranged from 0 to 6 grams per serving.
The products that were lowest in saturated fat were:
- Annie’s Vegan Mac GF Red Lentil Spirals & Sweet Potato Pumpkin and Annie’s Vegan Mac Shells & Sweet Potato Pumpkin—0 grams of saturated fat in a serving
- Banza Plant-Based Chickpea Mac & Vegan Cheddar and Banza Plant-Based Shells & Vegan White Cheddar—1 gram in a serving
- Jovial GF Vegan Mac—1 gram in a serving
- Annie’s Vegan Mac GF Rice Pasta & Cheddar—1 gram in a serving
- Upton’s Naturals Deluxe Ch’eesy Mac —1 gram in a serving
- Annie’s Vegan Mac Macaroni & Cheddar—5 grams in a serving
The sodium content of products ranged from 260 milligrams per serving to a whopping 850 milligrams per serving. Label reading is important if you are looking for a lower sodium product.
Here are the lowest sodium products that we found:
- Annie’s Vegan Mac GF Red Lentil Spirals & Sweet Potato Pumpkin and Annie’s Vegan Mac Shells & Sweet Potato Pumpkin—260 milligrams in a 1 cup serving]
- Upton’s Naturals Deluxe Ch’eesy Mac—300 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
Many products supplied calcium; in some cases, the calcium content depends on whether a calcium-fortified non-dairy milk is used to prepare the sauce. Calcium content ranged from 0 milligrams per serving to over 250 milligrams per serving.
Products supplying at least 100 milligrams of calcium included:
- Annie’s Vegan Mac Shells & Sweet Potato Pumpkin and Goodles Vegan is Believing Plant-based White Cheddar with Spirals and Jovial Gluten Free Vegan Mac—100 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
- Goodles Gluten Free Vegan Be Heroes and Wicked Kitchen BBQ King Mac & Cheeze and Wicked Kitchen This Is Nacho Mac & Cheeze—approximately 120 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
- Wicked Kitchen Smoky Picnic Mac & Cheeze—130 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
- Daiya Deluxe Mac & Cheeze, Cheddar Style and Daiya Deluxe Mac & Cheeze, White Cheddar Style and Daiya Deluxe Mac & Cheeze, Alfredo Style—approximately 200 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
- Daiya Deluxe Mac & Cheeze, Cheddar Jalapeño Style—240 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
- Daiya Deluxe Mac & Cheeze, Four Cheeze Style with Herbs—258 milligrams in a 1 cup serving
Products that were labeled as gluten-free included Annie’s Vegan Mac Gluten Free Rice Pasta & Cheddar, Annie’s Vegan Mac Gluten Free Red Lentil Spirals & Sweet Potato Pumpkin, all Banza Mac & Cheese products, all Daiya Mac & Cheese products, Goodles Gluten Free Vegan Be Heroes, Jovial Gluten Free Vegan Mac, and O Organics Gluten Free Vegan Mac Cheddar Style.
Thanks to Mae Y. Seon for her work on this project.
To see reviews of other vegan products, go to:
Vegan Shelf-stable Entrée Pouches
A Review of Vegan Frozen Grain-based Entrees
Vegan Butter: Which Should I Choose?
The contents of this website and our other publications, including The Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.