Cottage cheese sales top $2 billion

Cottage cheese is having a real comeback — not a cute internet comeback, but a grocery-aisle one. U.S. retail sales just cleared $2 billion for the first time in the 52 weeks ending February 22, 2026. That matters because this category spent years feeling old-fashioned and stagnant. Now it is one of the clearest signs that high-protein eating has moved from niche habit to mass-market shopping behavior. ### What actually changed? The new number is simple: nearly $2.1 billion in U.S. cottage cheese dollar sales over the latest 52-week period tracked by Circana. Unit sales hit 635 million, up 14% from a year earlier, while dollar sales rose 19%. That is not just price inflation doing the work — people are buying more tubs. ### Why is $2 billion a big deal? (dairyfoods.com) Because the climb has been fast and unusually steady. In early 2024, the category was at $1.33 billion. By the 52 weeks ending February 23, 2025, it had reached $1.75 billion. Now it is above $2 billion. A lot of food trends spike once and fade. Cottage cheese has now put together multiple years of double-digit growth. (dairyfoods.com) ### Who is winning? Private label is still the biggest piece of the market, with $673 million in sales. But branded players are growing fast too. Daisy reached $441 million. Lactalis Heritage Dairy got to $284 million. Good Culture hit $233 million. Kemps rose to $59 million, and Darigold was one of the fastest growers, up 34% to $55 million. That mix matters — it says this is not one premium brand riding hype, but a whole category broadening out across price points. (dairyfoods.com) ### Why are people suddenly buying this stuff? Basically, cottage cheese got recast as a protein food instead of a diet relic. TikTok helped kick that off in 2023 and 2024 with recipes, snack ideas, and “hidden protein” hacks. But the trend kept going after the first social burst, which suggests shoppers folded it into regular routines — breakfast bowls, dips, smoothies, and higher-protein snacks. Dairy groups and processors are also leaning into that message hard. (uadairy.org) ### Is this just social media hype? Turns out, no — or at least not anymore. If this were only an algorithm story, you would expect one sharp jump and then flattening. Instead, volume kept rising: 534.6 million pints in 2022, then up 9.4% in 2023, 12.5% in 2024, and another 14.3% in 2025 to 746.6 million. That is what a habit looks like. ### Does the broader dairy market back this up? (dairyfoods.com) Yes. Dairy processors have been expanding capacity, and the industry group IDFA said companies are investing more than $11 billion in new and expanded U.S. manufacturing capacity across 19 states. The driver is broader demand for protein-heavy dairy foods — yogurt, shakes, whey products, and cottage cheese among them. So the cottage cheese boom fits a bigger pattern, not a weird outlier. (nmpf.org) ### What is the catch? The catch is that hot categories attract competition fast. Private label is huge, branded players are scaling, and once every supermarket sees the same demand curve, shelf space gets crowded. That can squeeze margins even while sales rise. And if protein messaging cools, the category will need repeat buyers, not just curious ones. But right now, the repeat-buy signs look pretty good. (idfa.org) ### So what is the bottom line? This is less about one dairy product than about how Americans are eating. Cottage cheese used to read as dated. Now it reads as convenient protein. Crossing $2 billion makes that shift hard to dismiss — and much harder to call a fad. (dairyfoods.com) (uadairy.org)