No whey, a cottage cheese shortage? Demand surges amid protein craze

It's non soft to eat on healthily these years amid what feels the like skyrocketing food prices and never-ending supply issues.

Last month, it was cucumber prices, and last year, it was matcha shortages. Now, some Canadian consumers online are shocked at the price of cottage cheese, with some saying they can't even find it on store shelves anymore.

"What the hell is going on with cottage cheese prices in Canada?!?" someone wrote on Reddit on Sunday, citing prices they say have tripled since 2019.

"You can't find it anywhere and when you do it's nearly 5 dollars a container. I hate this world," some else wrote on Ask Canada subreddit last month.

Cottage cheese, a fresh, lumpy, protein-rich cheese consisting of moist curds, was very much considered a "diet food" in earlier decades, when it was paired with fruit and marketed as a low-calorie option, explained McMaster University kinesiology professor Stuart Phillips.

Recently, that's changed, Phillips said. Cottage cheese is in the midst of a revival, thanks in part to social media and the ongoing protein craze, which has consumers looking for easy ways to add more protein to their diets in pursuit of perceived health benefits.

On TikTok, which features more than 113,000 videos with a cottage cheese hashtag, influencers post recipes for "cottage cheese toast three ways," "viral sweet potato cottage cheese bowls" and "high-protein cottage cheese ice cream."

On Pinterest, Canadian searches for "cottage cheese recipes" have been trending for a year, but started skyrocketing in January. Google shows a similar trend, with Canadian searches for cottage cheese jumping in January and remaining high.

"TikTok has made cottage cheese seem new again," Phillips said.

"It is inexpensive, widely available, easy to use, and it fits perfectly into the current push to add protein to almost everything."

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All that demand, and our acute appetite for dairy protein, is contributing to supply issues and price increases on Canadian grocery store shelves, explained Sylvain Charlebois, director of Dalhousie University’s Agri‑Food Analytics Lab.

In Ontario on Tuesday, 500 grams of Nordica cottage cheese cost $5.99 at Metro, $5.99 at Sobeys, $5.79 at Loblaws and $4.98 at Walmart.

Cottage cheese prices in Canada have jumped roughly 60% since 2020 — from about $3.20 to over $5 per tub today.<br><br>Ironically, just as prices climb, TikTok has rediscovered cottage cheese, turning a once-declining product into a high-protein trend again. <a href="https://t.co/Jzii2f9NiP">pic.twitter.com/Jzii2f9NiP</a>

Between the surge in demand and a labour dispute last fall at the Agropur plant in Amqui, where they make Sealtest cottage cheese, shoppers in some provinces may have noticed empty shelves in the dairy case, Charlebois said.

Loblaw also said its seeing increased demand for cottage cheese across its stores, and added, "we are working closely with our suppliers to support this increased demand."

Online, shoppers from British Columbia to Nova Scotia have recently described their frustrations trying to acquire cottage cheese at Costco.

"Here in Ottawa, two visits in a row there has been no cottage cheese," a Costco shopper wrote on Reddit in December.

"Does anyone know if they have cottage cheese today, they were out yesterday," someone wrote on a Regina "Costco Lovers" Facebook page in April.

Canadian cottage cheese production jumped 20 per cent from December 2023 to December 2024, the most recent monthly data available, according to Statistics Canada. That month, Canada produced 2,174 tonnes of the white stuff.

Other dairy products, by comparison, stayed mostly flat or dropped slightly in the same time period.

In 2025, when quarterly data is available, Canada produced 35,459 tonnes of cottage cheese, according to Statistics Canada. That's a 26 per cent increase from the 28,139 tonnes produced in 2024.

U.S. Industry news website Dairy Herd News reports that cottage cheese is one of the few dairy categories posting back-to-back sales and consumption gains. The organization cited Circana retail data that showed cottage cheese volumes in the U.S. Rose 9.4 per cent in 2023, 12.5 per cent in 2024 and 14.3 per cent in 2025.

The TikTok cottage cheese trend has been going strong for about two years. And suppliers have also noted the increase in demand.

"What was once considered a niche product is now one of the fastest-growing segments in Canadian grocery stores."

The spokesperson added that Gay Lea has invested to meet growing demand, and "in the meantime, availability may vary by region and retailer."

"We are actively exploring all options to address this situation and restore cottage cheese to our lineup."

In times of high demand, smaller processors can face limits with equipment, labour and milk allocation, Charlebois explained. This can force a company to discontinue a product if they can’t scale production efficiently.

"More and more people are looking for their protein fix," he said.

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