Cottage cheese: why it is growing, and why it is good
A fresh cheese made from skimmed milk – naturally low in fat, high in protein, made from a short list of ingredients. In three years it has moved from the back of the dairy case to double-digit growth in the USA, the UK and the Nordics. This page is about the product: what it is, who buys it and why, how it is used – and what that asks of the dairy that makes it.
Three years of double-digit growth
US retail volume 2022–2025: from 535 to 747 million pints (Circana)
UK volume in 2025, with spend up 42 % to £102 million (Worldpanel by Numerator)
US cottage cheese production in 2025, against +4 % for all other cheese (USDA)
expected worldwide consumption by the early 2030s, up from 1.17 in 2020 (Statista)
A fresh cheese, made from skimmed milk and finished with cream
Cottage cheese is a fresh, unripened cheese. Skimmed milk is acidified with cultures, the coagulum is cut into grains, cooked gently and the whey is drawn off. The grains are washed and cooled, and then dressed with cream – and that dressing is where the fat content is set: 1 %, 2 % or 4 %. The product is sold within days of being made. Nothing is aged, nothing is pressed.
Because the milk is skimmed first, cottage cheese ties up very little of the dairy's fat. The cream that is not used in the dressing goes to butter, cream or other products. That is one reason cottage cheese is low in fat by nature – it was never a reformulated product.
- Small or large cheese grains – the grain size is set in the vat
- 1 %, 2 % and 4 % fat – set by the cream dressing, not by the milk
- Dry cheese grains for baking and food manufacturing; lactose-free, flavoured and high-protein variants
Half the calories are protein. The fat was never there.
Per 100 grams, low-fat cottage cheese gives 11–12 grams of protein for 70–85 kilocalories. Few foods combine that much protein with that little fat and sugar.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Fat | Carbohydrate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cottage cheese, 1 % fat | 72 kcal | 12.4 g | 1.0 g | 2.7 g |
| Cottage cheese, 2 % fat | 81 kcal | 10.4–11.0 g | 2.3 g | 4.3–4.8 g |
| Cottage cheese, 4 % fat (creamed) | 98 kcal | 11.1 g | 4.3 g | 3.4 g |
Source: USDA FoodData Central, reference entries for cottage cheese. UK reference values (McCance & Widdowson) give 9.4 g protein per 100 g for full-fat and 10.6 g for reduced-fat cottage cheese; recipes vary by producer.
- Protein first. In the low-fat versions, protein supplies half or more of the energy. Most of it is casein, which is digested slowly and releases amino acids over several hours – the reason cottage cheese has long been an evening snack for people who train.
- Naturally low in fat. The milk is skimmed before the curd is made, so low fat is the product's natural state. The fat level is chosen at the dressing step.
- Low in sugar. 3–5 grams of carbohydrate per 100 grams, almost all of it lactose; lactose-free variants are established.
- A short label. Milk, cream, salt, cultures. In the UK, retailers link the growth to shoppers moving away from ultra-processed foods.
- Calcium, phosphorus, vitamin B12 and selenium come with the milk. The one point to watch is salt: 300–400 mg sodium per 100 g in most recipes, which is why reduced-salt variants exist.
Protein from whole food, a phone camera – and a new kind of consumer
Cottage cheese was always high in protein and low in fat. What changed is who buys it and how they use it. Three drivers, and they reinforce each other.
Protein, from food rather than powder
Consumers across age groups are eating more protein, and increasingly want it from whole foods rather than bars and shakes. Cottage cheese delivers 11–12 grams per 100 grams at under 100 kilocalories – with nothing added to get there.
Social media made it an ingredient
Recipe videos turned cottage cheese from a side dish into something people cook with: bowls, pizza, flatbread, ice cream, dips. In Denmark, cottage cheese pizza was among the most searched recipes of 2025. Circana describes the US category as lifted "for both brands and private label".
Weight management and GLP-1
A growing group of consumers eats less but chooses protein-dense, low-calorie food – people on GLP-1 medication, and the much larger group managing weight without it. Cottage cheese fits both. More below.
Volume up 40 % in three years
Retail volume rose 9.4 % in 2023, 12.5 % in 2024 and 14.3 % in 2025, to 747 million pints – from a low of 535 million in 2022. Sales reached about 2 billion dollars in 2025, up 19 % on the year (Circana). Production followed: cottage cheese output rose 14.7 % in 2025, against 4 % for all other cheese (USDA).
Consumption per person is still half of what it was in the 1970s – 2.4 pounds a year in 2024 against 4.6 in 1976 – which is why dairies read the growth as headroom, not a peak. Cooperatives in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Mexico have announced plants switching from cheddar or fluid milk to cottage cheese.
Spend up 42 % in 2025
In the 52 weeks to 28 December 2025, UK shoppers spent £102 million on cottage cheese, 41.9 % more than the year before, and bought 25.6 million kilograms, up 28.1 % (Worldpanel by Numerator). Monthly volumes have grown from about 0.9 million kilograms in early 2023 to more than 1.7 million in December 2025 (NIQ).
Only about one household in four buys the product, so penetration is low compared with other chilled dairy. Producers in Cornwall and Scotland have announced new capacity, and private label has grown alongside brands.
Capacity is being added
Across the EU, cottage cheese grew 11.7 % in 2023 – more than all but two other dairy segments Circana tracks – and the growth has since reached the Nordics: in Denmark, cottage cheese pizza was among the most searched recipes of 2025, and the product has moved from side dish to everyday ingredient.
Producers in the UK have announced new capacity in 2025–26, and private label is growing alongside brands. Worldwide, consumption is expected to rise from 1.17 billion kilograms in 2020 to close to 1.75 billion by the early 2030s (Statista).
Eating less, choosing protein
In 2024, 16 % of US households had at least one person on a GLP-1 medication such as Wegovy or Zepbound, according to a Cornell University study of Numerator purchase data published in the Journal of Marketing Research. Numerator's own tracker put the figure at 22 % of households in August 2026 – double the level of October 2023 – and 23 % of consumers say they would consider the medication.
The effect on the shopping basket is measurable. Grocery spending falls about 5 % in the first six months, with indulgent categories down around 10 %. Of 40 food categories tracked, only four grew – and two of them are protein-forward: yogurt (+3.5 %) and nutrition bars (+3 %). Circana's 2026 research finds the same pattern: GLP-1 users buy more protein and fibre and fewer carbohydrates and sugar, and the habit outlasts the prescription.
Cottage cheese sits where that demand points. Dietary guidance for people on GLP-1 medication is to keep protein intake up to protect muscle while weight comes off, in smaller portions. A product with 11–12 grams of protein per 100 grams, soft texture and a neutral taste that goes sweet or savoury does that without a supplement. The industry has noticed: Reuters reported in May 2026 that whey protein prices had nearly doubled in a year as food producers develop high-protein yoghurt, cottage cheese and drinks for this consumer, and in the USA a cooperative has launched a whey-enriched cottage cheese with 18 grams of protein per half-cup and moved two fluid-milk plants to cultured products.
GLP-1 is the sharp end of a broader shift. The weight-management consumer who never takes the medication wants the same things – protein, satiety, few calories, a clean label – and that group is many times larger.
One product, a very long list of uses
Cottage cheese is mild, soft and protein-dense, and it can be eaten as it is or blended smooth. That is why it moves across the day – and across the shop.
Breakfast and snack bowls
With fruit, honey and granola; savoury with tomato, cucumber, herbs and olive oil; or on toast with avocado. The single-serve pot is the growth format in the UK and the USA.
Cooking
Blended smooth it replaces ricotta, cream cheese and béchamel: pasta sauces, lasagne, egg dishes, dips and "cottage mayo" – more protein, less fat, same job.
Baking
Flatbreads, pancakes, muffins and pizza bases made with cottage cheese; dry cheese grains in traditional pastries and fillings.
Desserts and frozen
Whipped into ice cream, cheesecake, mousse and protein puddings. Cookie dough made from cottage cheese was one of the recipes of 2025.
Foodservice and ready meals
Restaurants use it as a topping and an ingredient; egg and chive salads, sandwich spreads and ready meals carry a protein claim with a short label.
Industrial ingredient
Dry cheese grains and high-protein variants go into dips, bakery fillings, protein snacks and lactose-free ranges – a second route to market for the same vat.
Variants that sell: 1 %, 2 % and 4 % fat; small and large cheese grains; flavoured (chive, pineapple, pepper); lactose-free; high-protein with extra milk or whey protein; dry cheese grains for manufacturers. A dairy that can run several of these on one line can follow the market rather than guess it.
Demand like this rewards three things
Cottage cheese is bought by the kilo and made from milk bought by the litre. Growth of this kind rewards the dairy that can make a lot of it, make it the same every day, and make more than one kind.
More cheese from every litre
The curd is delicate. Cut unevenly, stirred too early or heated too fast, casein and fat leave with the whey. A closed, recipe-controlled vat with exact horizontal and vertical cutting, a low filling height and whey drawn off during agitation keeps them in the cheese. At a dairy in the USA, 2025, the same milk gave 10–15 % more cottage cheese after the switch to closed NDT vats.
The same grain, the same taste, every batch
Consumers buy cottage cheese on texture and a clean, mild taste – and they come back when it is the same. Recipe control gives the same cut, the same temperature curve and the same grain, batch after batch; a closed vessel under sterile air gives a clean flavour and a product that keeps.
One vat, many recipes
1 %, 2 % or 4 %; small or large cheese grains; dry cheese grains; lactose-free; high-protein. In a Multi-Cheese Vat these are recipes, not rebuilds – and when the market asks, the same closed vat makes paneer, halloumi, fresh cheese or hybrid products. Capacity grows by adding vats, not by replacing them.
Sources and notes
- USA volume 2022–25 and per-capita consumption: Circana and USDA data via National Milk Producers Federation, April 2026. Value: Circana via Dairy Foods, May 2025, and The Consumer Daily, May 2026.
- US production: USDA NASS, Dairy Products 2025 Summary, April 2026. Plant conversions: Hoard's Dairyman, 2026, and Reuters, May 2026.
- UK: Worldpanel by Numerator, 52 weeks to 28 Dec 2025, via DairyReporter and FoodBev; NIQ via The Grocer, 2026.
- EU: Circana via DairyReporter, June 2024. Denmark, food trends 2025: Dairy Industries International, December 2025. Global forecast: Statista, as cited in industry publications, 2025.
- GLP-1: Cornell University and Numerator, "The No-Hunger Games", Journal of Marketing Research, December 2025 (via Dairy Processing); Numerator tracker via Grocery Dive, August 2026; Circana via Prepared Foods, January 2026; Reuters, 5 May 2026, via The Cattle Site.
- Nutrition: USDA FoodData Central (cottage cheese, 1 %, 2 % and 4 % fat); McCance & Widdowson's The Composition of Foods; Boirie et al., PNAS, 1997 (casein digestion).
- NDT project figures: public announcement of the US plant, 2025–26; see References. Market figures are retail panel data for the periods stated and are not directly comparable across countries.
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