Best Food Processor for Grating Cheese: Top Picks for 2026

Grating cheese by hand is fine for a sprinkle of parmesan, but if you’re prepping for a big batch of lasagna, a taco night, or a cheese board, a food processor with the right grating disc turns a tedious job into a 30-second task. The features that matter most here are motor wattage (hard cheeses like parmesan and aged cheddar need real torque), the availability of multiple grating disc sizes (fine versus coarse), and how loud the machine is if you’re prepping in a shared space.

Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY 14-Cup

With a 720-watt motor and measured sound output around 59.2 decibels, this large-capacity processor is frequently named a top overall pick for grating cheese, in part because it ships with multiple grating discs ranging from fine to coarse. The 14-cup bowl also means you can grate a large block of cheese in one pass rather than processing in smaller batches.

KitchenAid KFP0718ER 7-Cup

This smaller, simpler 300-watt processor is a good fit if your cheese-grating needs are modest — think weekly taco night rather than holiday entertaining. It trades some capacity and power for a smaller footprint, which matters if counter or cabinet space is tight.

KitchenAid KFP1466ER

A step up from the 7-cup model, this 650-watt processor adds KitchenAid’s ExactSlice system, which lets you adjust slicing thickness through an external dial — handy if you’re switching between grating cheese and slicing vegetables in the same prep session without swapping discs constantly.

Ninja BN601 Professional Plus

This 1000-watt system is specifically noted for handling hard, dense cheeses like parmesan without bogging down, which is the exact scenario where weaker motors struggle. If parmesan, pecorino, or similarly firm cheeses are a regular part of your cooking, the extra motor power here is worth prioritizing over a model built mainly for softer cheeses.

Breville BFP800XL Sous Chef

At the premium end, this 1200-watt processor is built for serious home cooks who want restaurant-level consistency, not just for cheese but for the full range of food-prep tasks. The higher price reflects a more powerful motor and a wider range of included attachments.

Hamilton Beach 70730 10-Cup

On the budget end, this 450-watt, 10-cup processor has been tested by Consumer Reports and rated excellent specifically for shredding cheddar cheese and carrots, with a built-in bowl scraper that eliminates the need to stop and manually scrape the sides mid-process. It won’t match the Ninja BN601 or Breville Sous Chef on raw power for the hardest cheeses, but for everyday cheddar, mozzarella, and similar medium-firm cheeses, its shredding performance has held up well in independent testing at a fraction of the price of the premium options above.

If hard cheeses are your main use case, prioritize wattage first — the Ninja BN601 and Breville Sous Chef are both built to handle dense blocks without stalling. If you’re mostly grating softer or medium-firm cheeses occasionally alongside other food prep, the Cuisinart’s multiple disc sizes and large bowl make it one of the more flexible all-around choices, while the two KitchenAid models are worth considering if a smaller footprint matters more than maximum capacity. And if budget is the deciding factor and you’re not grating rock-hard parmesan on a weekly basis, the Hamilton Beach 70730’s independently tested shredding performance makes it a genuinely competitive pick despite its lower price and wattage.

One detail worth checking regardless of which model you choose: grating disc material and sharpness fade over time with heavy use, especially on cheaper processors, and a dulling disc will start tearing cheese into uneven shreds instead of clean ones rather than failing outright — so if you notice grating quality declining after a year or two of regular use, a replacement disc (rather than a whole new processor) is often the fix. It’s also worth running the processor empty for a few seconds before loading cheese that’s been refrigerated; very cold, hard cheese can bog down even a capable motor on the very first pass, while cheese that’s rested at room temperature for 10-15 minutes grates noticeably more smoothly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use a food processor to grate cheese without a dedicated grating disc?
Not effectively — the standard S-blade included with most food processors will chop or mince cheese into an uneven, sticky mass rather than producing clean shreds. A dedicated grating or shredding disc, which all six models above include, is what actually produces the fine or coarse shreds you’d get from a box grater, just much faster.

Why does my food processor struggle with parmesan specifically?
Parmesan and other aged, hard cheeses are significantly denser than cheddar or mozzarella, which puts more strain on the motor and can cause weaker processors (generally under 500-600 watts) to slow down, stall, or produce uneven shreds. This is the main reason higher-wattage models like the Ninja BN601 (1000W) and Breville Sous Chef (1200W) are specifically called out as better suited to hard-cheese grating than the smaller KitchenAid or Hamilton Beach models.

Is it worth buying a food processor just for grating cheese?
If cheese is genuinely the only task, a dedicated box grater or a cheaper single-purpose electric grater will usually cost less and take up less storage space. A food processor earns its price when grating is one of several regular tasks — slicing vegetables, making dough, chopping nuts — since the grating disc is then just one of several attachments you’re already getting value from, rather than the sole reason for the purchase.