Best Powdered Cheese for Long-Term Food Storage

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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Contents (Jump to a Section)

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Legacy Food Storage is a well-known long-term food storage brand that takes the top mark in our freeze-dried food supplier review. They typically provide consistent quality, great taste, and extremely long shelf life.

We found that their powdered cheese was no exception, and provided all of this at a great value. It is one of the few freeze-dried options (rather than spray-dried), which slightly improves taste, reconstitution, and shelf-life when compared to the rest.

Here is how this cheese blend measures up:

• 2.0 pounds
• 33 servings
• 130 calories per 28g serving: 6g fat, 17g carbs, 2g protein
• Industrial freeze-dried
• Resealable stand-up gusseted pouch w/ oxygen absorbers and nitrogen flush
• 15-year shelf life
• Made in the USA

Legacy is typically the brand to beat for long-term food storage, so it made sense that their Legacy Powdered Cheese Blend is the best option.

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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.

It tastes great and 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 180F and you’re saucing!

Here are the specs:

• 1 pound
• 56 servings
• 35 calories per 8g serving: 2g fat, 3g carbs, 1g protein
• Industrial spray-dried
• 1-year shelf life
• Made in the USA

Pick up Hoosier Hill Farm Cheddar Cheese Powder to pack some cheese in your pantry on a budget.

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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.

No matter how you look at it, over three pounds of cheese with a 10+ year shelf life for less than $20 will always be a good deal if you are looking to stock your pantry.

Here are the details:

• 3.25 pounds
• 43 servings
• 120 calories per 34g serving: 2.5g fat, 20g carbs, 5g protein
• Industrial spray-dried
• Resealable #10 can w/ bags and oxygen absorbers
• 10-year shelf life
• Made in the USA

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.

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Everything We Recommend

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The Cheese We Compared

Our research narrowed the field down to the several powdered cheese brands that we tested: Kraft, Legacy, Augason Farms, Hoosier Hill Farm, Nutristore, King Arthur, and more.

You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.

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 round and see if it makes the cut and we can see if it will beat out our top picks.

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What to Look For

The best cheese powder has several important features to look for:

1. Value
2. Nutritional Content
3. Quality
4. Preservation & Packaging
5. 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 go overspending 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.

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 let 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.

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.

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.

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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 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:

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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.

Sources and 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)

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The Final Word

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:

We presented quite a lot of information, but as always: if you have any questions let us know and we would be happy to help. Our research and testing found the Legacy Powdered Cheese to be the best option given its value, nutritional content, preservation method, packaging, shelf-life, and quality.

Keep exploring, stay prepared, and be safe.

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