Guest Post: The Role of Magnesium Chloride in Shaping Plant-Based Cheese Structure and Texture

Jetze Wijnia is Senior Food Application Technologist at Nedmag. He oversees the company’s product portfolio and brings a strong academic background in food technology. With a career rooted in food product and process development, he combines experience with the latest scientific insights for new product development.

In this guest post, Jetze describes the different parts of food physics and the role of the mineral Magnesium in plant-based foods, particularly in cheese-type structures.

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The rapid growth of plant-based foods has driven innovation in cheese alternatives, where achieving a convincing texture remains one of the biggest challenges. Consumers expect plant-based cheeses not only to mimic the flavor of dairy cheese but also its structure, meltability and mouthfeel.

At the same time, manufacturers are increasingly looking at ways to improve the nutritional profile of plant-based products, including opportunities to reduce sodium while maintaining consumer acceptance. Among the functional ingredients gaining attention in this context is magnesium chloride (MgCl₂), a salt that can play an important role in structuring plant-based cheese matrices.

Why texture remains a challenge

Unlike dairy cheese, most plant-based cheeses lack casein proteins, which naturally form a network capable of trapping fat and water. This complex network is responsible for the elasticity, firmness and melt behavior of traditional cheese. In plant-based formulations, replicating this network is difficult.

Without proper structuring agents, plant-based cheeses can have a very rubbery texture. They may also exhibit poor slice-ability or an undesirable mouthfeel, such as graininess or excessive stickiness. Achieving a balance between firmness and creaminess is therefore critical, and this is where magnesium chloride can play a role.

Magnesium chloride acts as a coagulant and cross-linking agent. Its primary function in plant-based cheese is to interact with proteins and promote aggregation. This aggregation creates a more cohesive and continuous protein network, which helps mimic the structure of dairy cheese. The divalent magnesium ions (Mg²⁺) can interact with two negatively charged amino acid side chains, forming a gel like protein network.

Mineral functionality beyond salt reduction

Sodium reduction is becoming an increasingly important topic across the food industry, including within plant-based categories. While reducing sodium can help improve nutritional profiles, salt also contributes to functionality, texture, water management, and sensory perception. As a result, sodium reduction is rarely as simple as removing salt from a formulation.

This has increased interest in multifunctional ingredients that can contribute to both product performance and nutritional objectives. Mineral-based ingredients are one example of this trend. In addition to their nutritional contribution, minerals can influence protein interactions, gel formation, water retention and overall product structure.

For plant-based cheese developers, this means formulation decisions increasingly involve balancing texture, sensory quality, nutritional value, and consumer expectations simultaneously.

What tofu can teach us about mineral interactions

The importance of mineral interactions can also be observed in other plant-based protein systems such as tofu. Different coagulants are known to produce noticeably different textures, even when the same base ingredients are used.

Tofu products that use magnesium chloride as a coagulant tend to have a softer, more gel-like structure than products that use, for example, calcium sulfate as a coagulant. While direct comparisons between tofu and plant-based cheese should be made carefully, these observations highlight the significant influence that minerals can have on protein aggregation, water distribution, and final texture.

Such examples illustrate the broader complexity of plant-based formulation. Small changes in mineral composition can affect how proteins interact, how moisture is retained, and ultimately how consumers perceive texture and mouthfeel.

Balancing functionality and sensory performance

While magnesium chloride offers clear benefits, its use must be carefully controlled. Excessive amounts may introduce a slightly bitter taste. Process conditions such as temperature, pH, and mixing intensity also influence the effectiveness of magnesium chloride.

For instance, protein solubility and reactivity depend on pH, which in turn affects how well magnesium ions can induce aggregation. Therefore, optimization of dosage is crucial to balance functionality and sensory quality.

Recent results in dairy-based cheese have shown that the rubbery structure of low-fat cheese can be reduced with the use of magnesium chloride. 

While plant-based cheese systems differ significantly, these findings support broader interest in understanding how mineral interactions can influence texture development across different food matrices.

Looking ahead

Plant-based cheese development is increasingly moving beyond flavor alone. Texture, nutrition, sodium reduction and overall eating experience are now central to how the category can improve and mature. 

Magnesium chloride offers an interesting example of how mineral/based ingredients may support this next stage of development. 

Its potential lies not only in replacing part of the sodium contribution in selected applications, but also in influencing protein interactions, water distribution and matrix formation. For producers of plant-based cheese, this opens up opportunities to explore magnesium-based salt solutions as functional ingredients that can contribute to structure, mouthfeel and nutritional profile at the same time.

Further application-specific testing will be important, as plant-based cheese systems differ widely depending on the protein source, fat system, pH and processing conditions. However, the broader direction is clear: as manufacturers seek better texture and improved nutritional value, magnesium-based formulation strategies deserve closer attention as part of the future toolbox for plant-based cheese innovation.