Cottage cheese craze causes challenges for market

CTV’s Colton Wiens explores why a dairy staple is surging in popularity.

The price of cottage cheese is on the rise, and some consumers say it’s also harder to find in grocery stores.

“If you follow what’s going on with food, you also will have heard that cottage cheese’s demand is up. I’ve heard as much as 30 per cent. And that means that we’re seeing sometimes empty shelves in the store,” Michael von Massow, a food economist with the University of Guelph said.

The owner of Victoria Street Market in Kitchener told CTV News the demand for cottage cheese lately, just keeps growing.

“We’ve seen a huge uptick in it in recent months,” Bo Gedja, owner of the Victoria Street Market, said. “Cottage cheese is something that we have always carried but now carry a lot more of it because a lot of people are buying it for protein.”

Retailers like Victoria Street Market and Central Fresh Market in Kitchener told CTV News supply hasn’t been an issue for them. But empty cottage cheese shelves are something other consumers are noticing around the community.

“I expect that we’ll see this become less of an acute issue in grocery stores. But, if you change demand relatively like that, it just takes a while for the supply chain to catch up and adapt to that change in demand,” von Massow said.

Influencing the market

Von Massow said one of the major causes for the change is popularity driven by social media influencers who are featuring it in their recipes.

“What you’ve got is a very rapid change in demand. Protein is cool again,” von Massow said.

“TikTok and Instagram have really come up with some really cool ways to utilize it for people to get protein,” Chelsea Cross, a registered dietician with Dietetic Directions said. “I think it has taken a hit in terms of the cost effectiveness. In addition to now, the shelves are now seemingly - they’re becoming more empty of it.”

Cross said she used to use cottage cheese as a cheaper alternative to Greek yogurt for her clients, but the price keeps rising.

“It’s not just 50 cents. We used to be able to get cottage cheese for two bucks for the same container as like Greek yogurt. And now it’s $4 or $5, which is very similar to Greek yogurt at this point,” Cross said.

Balancing demand

According to the Director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab Sylvain Charlebois, cottage cheese prices have jumped roughly 60 per cent since 2020, now averaging around $5 dollars a tub in 2026.

“Economics 101, demand goes up and supply doesn’t go up with it. You’re going to see some price differences,” von Massow said.

According to von Massow, producers need to decide how to divvy up the milk they have.

“Dairy processors operate fairly close to capacity too. So, they might need to adapt capacity or bring some old capacity up to speed a little bit more,” von Massow said. “People who are managing production have to say, ‘Do we do we expand our capacity? Is this a sustainable increase in demand? Is cottage cheese going to be cool till September, or is it going to be cool for the next several years?’”

Going forward, Cross thinks cottage cheese will continue being a popular choice for protein, as long as its price doesn’t outpace its benefits.

“I guess we’ll get to see how long the cottage cheese trend goes for,” Cross said. “But I’m not really sure what the next humble protein item might be. I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Cross said.