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The Best Crumbled Feta

Is Crumbled Feta Worth Buying?

Top Pick

WinnerAthenos Crumbled Feta Cheese

With high fat and relatively moderate sodium levels, this feta stood out as the best crumbled option. It was “milky and salty,” with a “clean” flavor that was “simple but good.” It was “a touch dry” but had nice big, firm chunks that kept their shape and stood up to the flavors of other ingredients.
Fat: 6 gMilk: CowSodium: 330 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $4.00 for 4 oz ($1.00 per oz)
With high fat and relatively moderate sodium levels, this feta stood out as the best crumbled option. It was “milky and salty,” with a “clean” flavor that was “simple but good.” It was “a touch dry” but had nice big, firm chunks that kept their shape and stood up to the flavors of other ingredients.
Fat: 6 gMilk: CowSodium: 330 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $4.00 for 4 oz ($1.00 per oz)

What You Need to Know

Crumbling a block of feta cheese for a salad, pasta, or pizza can be messy, making packaged crumbled feta a tempting substitute. But how does it measure up? To find out, we tasted four of the most widely available crumbled fetas and compared them with our winning block feta, made by Real Greek Feta. A panel of tasters assessed each product plain, folded into couscous salad, and baked in spanakopita.

Fat and Sodium Influence Flavor

Overall, tasters preferred our winning block feta. Like other Greek fetas, it’s made with funkier sheep’s milk, and we liked that extra complexity. The only crumbled fetas available are produced domestically and made with milder cow’s milk. Despite the lack of fancy imports when it comes to crumbled feta, we found a few decent options. The best had lots of fat—6 grams per ounce—and a relatively moderate sodium level of 330 milligrams per ounce. Tasters called our favorite “savory” and “briny”—“mild-mannered” overall but “pretty good.”

tester carefully pours crumbled feta onto a scale
We carefully weighed precise amounts of crumbled feta and tossed them with Israeli couscous to see if we could pick out differences between raw products in a salad. A cooked application, spanakopita, and a plain tasting rounded out our tasting plan.

Crumble Size Matters

But lots of fat and moderate sodium didn’t guarantee success; what separated a decent crumbled feta from a bad one mostly came down to the degree to which they were crumbled. Bigger crumbles were better, making the feta more prominent in dishes; smaller crumbles seemed to disappear. Of the four products we tried, two had large, consistent crumbles; the third had some larger crumbles with some smaller ones mixed in; and the fourth had a few larger crumbles surrounded by lots of very small, sand-like crumbles.

All four fetas we tasted used an anticaking agent to keep their crumbles from clumping. Our second-place feta was tossed in potato starch; its crumbles were slightly wet when eaten plain but just fine once we combined them with other ingredients. The other three included cellulose, an ingredient that’s commonly used to keep shredded cheese separate, among other applications.

Four small piles of feta arranged from largest to smallest crumble size
We found that the biggest differentiator among higher- and lower-ranking fetas was crumble size, which varied greatly across the board.

In our top-rated crumbled feta, which has larger crumbles, the cellulose was barely detectable; in our two lowest-ranking products, with mostly small crumbles, it was much more noticeable—egregiously so in the last-place product, which had the smallest crumbles of all. Tasters singled out this product as exceptionally dry, even when tossed in a dressing. Manufacturers wouldn’t share their anticaking-agent-to-cheese ratios; however, cheese and food technologist Dean Sommer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Dairy Research confirmed that the drier products likely use too much cellulose or, because they have smaller crumbles, there wasn’t enough cheese in each crumble to balance out the cellulose’s drying effect.

In the end, the best of the bunch was Athenos Crumbled Feta Cheese, which had a clean, milky, briny flavor and large crumbles that stood out nicely in our recipes. We prefer our winning block feta, but when convenience is paramount, Athenos is a good option.

small cups of couscous salad in one image and small numbered cups of spanakopita in the second image
In addition to sampling each product plain, we tasted them against our winning block feta in couscous salad and spanakopita.

  • Taste plain
  • Taste in Israeli couscous salad
  • Taste in spanakopita

  • Higher fat
  • Moderate sodium level
  • Larger crumbles
  • Minimally detectable anticaking agent
03:20

Cook's CountryCrumbled FetaWatch Now

Everything We Tested

Recommended

WinnerAthenos Crumbled Feta Cheese

With high fat and relatively moderate sodium levels, this feta stood out as the best crumbled option. It was “milky and salty,” with a “clean” flavor that was “simple but good.” It was “a touch dry” but had nice big, firm chunks that kept their shape and stood up to the flavors of other ingredients.
Fat: 6 gMilk: CowSodium: 330 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $4.00 for 4 oz ($1.00 per oz)
With high fat and relatively moderate sodium levels, this feta stood out as the best crumbled option. It was “milky and salty,” with a “clean” flavor that was “simple but good.” It was “a touch dry” but had nice big, firm chunks that kept their shape and stood up to the flavors of other ingredients.
Fat: 6 gMilk: CowSodium: 330 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $4.00 for 4 oz ($1.00 per oz)

Boar’s Head Creamy Feta Cheese Crumbles

This cheese had the most sodium in our lineup, and while it was “too salty” plain, it worked when mixed with other ingredients: “good flavor, salty, briny,” said one taster trying it in a salad. It had nice big chunks, which tasters appreciated for the “big patches of creamy, savory cheese” it contributed to spanakopita. Its crumbles were quite moist, even “wet,” when plain, but once we mixed them with other ingredients, it wasn’t a problem.
Fat: 4 gMilk: CowSodium: 370 mgAnticaking Agent: Potato starch Price at Time of Testing: $6.79 for 6 oz ($1.13 per oz)
This cheese had the most sodium in our lineup, and while it was “too salty” plain, it worked when mixed with other ingredients: “good flavor, salty, briny,” said one taster trying it in a salad. It had nice big chunks, which tasters appreciated for the “big patches of creamy, savory cheese” it contributed to spanakopita. Its crumbles were quite moist, even “wet,” when plain, but once we mixed them with other ingredients, it wasn’t a problem.
Fat: 4 gMilk: CowSodium: 370 mgAnticaking Agent: Potato starch Price at Time of Testing: $6.79 for 6 oz ($1.13 per oz)

President Feta Crumbles

Plain, this feta was “faintly sweet,” with a light, yogurt-like tang. When it was mixed with other ingredients, its “pleasant milky,” “mild,” “savory” flavor came through. It was soft and creamy, which tasters liked, but still a bit too fine when compared with the bigger crumbles of our top two products: “I wish there were larger chunks” was a common complaint.
Fat: 5 gMilk: CowSodium: 260 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $4.99 for 6 oz ($0.83 per oz)
Plain, this feta was “faintly sweet,” with a light, yogurt-like tang. When it was mixed with other ingredients, its “pleasant milky,” “mild,” “savory” flavor came through. It was soft and creamy, which tasters liked, but still a bit too fine when compared with the bigger crumbles of our top two products: “I wish there were larger chunks” was a common complaint.
Fat: 5 gMilk: CowSodium: 260 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $4.99 for 6 oz ($0.83 per oz)

Not Recommended

Treasure Cave Crumbled Feta Cheese

Each container of this cheese had a few larger chunks surrounded by a mass of small, powdery crumbles. Tasters compared its texture to those of sawdust and cheap canned Parmesan cheese. Despite its high fat, its flavor was “not discernible at all” in salads and spanakopita, and it was egregiously dry in every tasting, with tasters detecting a “fuzzy” coating on the surface of its crumbles: the cellulose used to keep them from clumping.
Fat: 6 gMilk: CowSodium: 320 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $2.99 for 6 oz ($0.50 per oz)
Each container of this cheese had a few larger chunks surrounded by a mass of small, powdery crumbles. Tasters compared its texture to those of sawdust and cheap canned Parmesan cheese. Despite its high fat, its flavor was “not discernible at all” in salads and spanakopita, and it was egregiously dry in every tasting, with tasters detecting a “fuzzy” coating on the surface of its crumbles: the cellulose used to keep them from clumping.
Fat: 6 gMilk: CowSodium: 320 mgAnticaking Agent: CellulosePrice at Time of Testing: $2.99 for 6 oz ($0.50 per oz)

*All products reviewed by America’s Test Kitchen are independently chosen, researched, and reviewed by our editors. We buy products for testing at retail locations and do not accept unsolicited samples for testing. We list suggested sources for recommended products as a convenience to our readers but do not endorse specific retailers. When you choose to purchase our editorial recommendations from the links we provide, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices are subject to change.

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The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. Have a question or suggestion? Send us an email at atkreviews@americastestkitchen.com. We appreciate your feedback!

The Expert

Author: Hannah Crowley

byHannah Crowley

Executive Editor, ATK Reviews

Hannah is an executive editor for ATK Reviews and cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube.

Hannah Crowley is an executive editor for ATK Reviews and cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube. She's written about and reviewed kitchen equipment and ingredients for more than a decade and is passionate about helping people spend their money wisely. Hannah worked at newspapers, on farms, in restaurants, and on the ski slopes before joining the test kitchen. She lives in Vermont, where she loves being outdoors. She says she's a vegetarian, but she's not.

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