The cottage cheese comeback and why demand is ‘in overdrive’

Once a byword for 1970s dinner parties and 1980s dieting, cottage cheese is no longer constrained to being dolloped on a jacket potato, as social media influencers inspire consumers with recipes for pancakes, muffins, brownies, pasta sauces, sandwich fillings and pizza bases.

Broader shifts towards eating more protein, reducing intake of highly processed foods, and increased awareness of the importance of gut health have also contributed to a growing popularity of the creamy cheese.

Crucially, it is no longer just own label running the show, with serious money flowing into building sleek brands. Earlier this month, private equity firm L Catterton put down a marker when it grabbed a majority stake in US-based Good Culture for a reported $500m.

James Scallan, a managing director in the consumer division of investment bank Houlihan Lokey, which advised Good Culture on its sale, says the business has been successful in the US by repositioning a historically dated product and category around clean ingredients, high protein, improved formulation and mouthfeel, and modern, authentic branding.

Big dairy players have also made moves in the UK category. Lactalis launched its Lindahls products last year, targeting health-conscious shoppers with cottage cheese options for muscle recovery and weight management, and Arla kicked off 2026 with natural and low-fat SKUs in 300g and 500g pots.

Although, category tailwinds and soaring demand are no guarantee of success in the chilled aisles, where the supply chain is complex and the shelf life is short. Just ask Curdi founder Mili Kenworthy, who sadly decided to wind up her burgeoning business just months before it was set to launch in retail. Kenworthy faced up to the economic realities of making a new brand work without scale and access to lots of funding.

But, despite the challenges, the category is only headed one way.

A culinary phenomenon

Monthly volumes of cottage cheese in the UK have grown from just more than 900,000kg at the start of 2023 to more than 1.7 million kg in the final month of 2025, according to NIQ data.

Total volumes in retail hit more than 21 million in the 52 weeks to 27 December, up 118% compared with three years ago and registering compound growth of 30% over that period, while value sales rose 54% year on year to £105.5m, adding a whopping £37.2m to the category in 2025.

NIQ highlights private label as the dominant force in cottage cheese, shifting 16.1 million kilos last year and up 35% on 2024.

Yorkshire’s Longley Farm, as the biggest brand in the space, sells just a fifth of that figure. But challengers are growing fast, including Graham’s Family Dairy, which more than doubled volumes in 2025.

Tesco says this week what started as a TikTok-fuelled health food fad for millennials in 2023 has now gone into “sudden overdrive”, moving from “a craze to one of the biggest food trends in recent times, with producers rushing to keep up with record UK demand”.

That demand has rocketed by 200% at Tesco in the past two years, with Britian’s biggest retailer increasing its range size to try and keep up. It has worked with supply partner Graham’s to launch added-protein SKUs and with cream cheese behemoth Philadelphia to bring the brand’s first-ever cottage cheese exclusively to Tesco stores in the autumn of last year. The retailer also hopes to grow the appeal for the category further with two new innovative lines next month.

Tesco cottage cheese buyer Elizabeth Tomkins says TikTok food trends often result in sudden sales spikes, but cottage cheese is “a fully-fledged culinary phenomenon that has brought a lot of extra business to the UK dairy industry”.

She adds the products have now become so popular with a younger audience that Tesco is ordering in as much as it can to cope with “all-time record demand”.

Viral success

Interestingly, the NIQ data points to an older demographic adding the most value to the category in the UK. Under-34s, the savviest generation when it comes to TikTok and social media, actually had the lowest growth for cottage cheese year on year in 2025. Sales from 65-plus grew by £9.3m to £26.1m for the 52 weeks to 27 December, while the under-34s nudged up from £8.9m to £9.7m during the year. The 55 to 64-year-old age bracket grew from £12.5m to £20.5m, 45 to 54 moved from £11.9m to £18.8m, and 35 to 44 increased from £11.1m to £19.6m.

But whoever is doing the buying, the demand is driving increased quality into the category as challenger brands such as Alter Ego and All Things Cottage Cheese – and Good Culture in the US – promote premium offerings with clean labels, minimal ingredients, creamy textures and live cultures.

All Things Dairy co-founder Toby Hopkinson (who has extended the brand outside of butter for the first time this year) says consumers are today more accepting of full-fat, whole-food protein, and social media has reframed cottage cheese as modern and adaptable.

Given he launched All Things Butter with friend and chef Thomas Straker on the back of the viral success of the latter’s butter recipe video series, Hopkinson knows first-hand how powerful social media is as a tool for educating consumers on usage occasions.

All Things Cottage Cheese has bolted out the gates this year and is 250% above forecast after just one week in Sainsbury’s and on Ocado, with Hopkinson admitting “we can’t make enough”. The early success is no doubt helped by a partnership with Emily English, aka Em the Nutritionist, who is tapping her loyal audience of three million followers on TikTok and Instagram with branded recipes, in tandem with Straker, who is no slouch on social media, boasting millions of followers of his own.

The brand says the content from the pair has racked up more than five million views across socials already, bringing new consumers to the brand and category.

“Cottage cheese is clearly having a moment, but for us this wasn’t about chasing protein trends,” Hopkinson says.

“It felt like a natural next step after butter – applying the same thinking around quality, texture and, above all, taste to a category that had been stuck in the past. Early demand has been incredibly encouraging, but chilled dairy is a tough business.

“Scaling responsibly, building the right supply chain and keeping quality where it needs to be is the real work now. Seeing more established players enter the space reinforces the opportunity here for quality products that champion British ingredients to bring some much-needed freshness to a category that hadn’t changed in years.”

Brands versus own label

And All Things Cottage Cheese is bringing real innovation alongside its flagship natural variant, with category-first flavours such as mango and a mixed berries SKU developed alongside conserves challenger Fearne & Rosie. Content from social platforms will be vital to help consumers learn what to do with these more out-there product lines, but it gives the brand a big point of difference.

Robert Graham, managing director at Graham’s, agrees the majority of category growth in 2026 will come from brands as shoppers value trust, innovation and provenance. Graham’s, which also makes private label, is currently preparing to launch new products exclusively with Tesco, with the Scottish group’s cottage cheese business now bigger than its traditional milk operation.

“The demand has simply been staggering,” Graham adds.

Miranda Ballard, global head of SMB at NIQ, says all buzz around food trends is good for business at retailers and manufacturers alike, but adds own label should continue to benefit proportionate to its category share.

And she says this presents an opportunity for fast-growing, innovative brands. “It’s best to view own label as a partner, not a competitor or an unrelated constant,” Ballard adds.

“Is there an innovation the smaller businesses can do under their nimble brands, using a limited number of stores to test a product or trend quickly for private label? Leaning into their value as an innovation source for own label could also recoup the return, leading to a stronger relationship with the retailer for something that was going to happen anyway.”

The much larger US market gives an indication of the trajectory cottage cheese could take here in the UK.

Private label in the US totalled 281 million kg in the 52 weeks to 3 Jan 2026, up from 263 million kg in the prior year [NIQ], while Good Culture, despite doubling in size from where it was in 2023, still only accounts for 51 million kg of the total category. Any constraints Good Culture has faced in capacity issues as it grows rapidly should now be addressed following the L Catterton deal.

Houlihan’s Scallan adds the cottage cheese category is also increasingly attractive given its strong fit with weight management and GLP-1-adjacent consumption trends.

“We see a similar opportunity emerging in the UK, where penetration remains meaningfully lower but consumer interest in high-protein, minimally processed dairy is accelerating,” he says. “While innovation could come from large dairy players leveraging scale and distribution, we believe disruption is more likely to originate from branded challengers or startups that can modernise the category through brand, format and digital-led consumer engagement, mirroring the US playbook.”

Kenworthy, whose Curdi brand played into this model before ceasing trading, projects the UK category will be worth £400m in the next five years. And the space is only set to be more crowded, with Kenworthy quoting a Tesco buyer telling her eight more brands are set to launch in the coming six months.

Undoubtedly, there will be more entrants who fall by the whey-side, but it’s a sure bet Tesco and the rest of its competitor set will open more chiller space to cottage cheese in much the same way as kefir grew to occupy an entire bay following sustained demand.

The cottage cheese craze seems here to stay.