Vegans give up dairy products when they start their plant-based diet, which means until now they can't enjoy a festive cheeseboard.

But Sainsbury's has this week launched a dairy-free cheese platter that is suitable for vegans - and it features versions of everyone's favourite varieties including Cheddar and Wensleydale.

The cheeseboard - believed to be the first mass market dairy-free platter - is only £5.50, making it only slightly pricier than the supermarket's £5 dairy Cheese Selection.

The Violife Christmas Dairy Free Platter is now on sale at Sainsbury's. It's believed to be the first selection for vegans

The vegan cheese platter by Violife contains three types of dairy-free cheese, including a 'mature' Cheddar-style cheese, a cranberry-filled Wensleydale-style cheese; and a 'blu' blue-style cheese.

Not only are the cheeses dairy free, but they are also suitable for those with gluten and nut allergies as they are made from coconut oil.

Sainsbury's started selling vegan cheese more than a year ago, and customers went wild for the coconut oil-based varieties

However, when FEMAIL taste tested the cheeses last year, the Wensleydale-style vegan option didn't quite live up to the flavour of a real block of Wensleydale, as it had a 'dodgy aftertaste,' according to our testers.

The cheddar-style variety does taste exactly like a delicious Cheddar, the tasters said, even though the texture and consistency is very different.

Though they may not quite taste the same as dairy cheeses, the vegan platter will ensure that vegans won't miss out when families present their festive cheeseboards at Christmas this year.

Sainsbury's started selling vegan cheeses last year - and soon afterwards they were the subject of a viral Facebook rant from a woman complaining about the dairy-free additions to the supermarket's range.

The woman demanded vegans call dairy-free cheeses 'Gary or something', and the vegan community responded by embracing the idea.

Sainsbury's joined in by mocking up one of the vegan cheeses with a 'Gary' label, and even now if you search for 'Gary' on the website, the dairy-free cheese products will come up.