Cottage cheese boom now so strong it has become one of the world’s biggest food trends

It started as a TikTok health food fad with Millennials sending demand for 70s slimmers’ favourite, cottage cheese, into a sudden overdrive.

But now, Brits’ love of the dairy product has grown from a craze to one of the biggest food trends in recent times with producers rushing to keep up with record UK demand.

At Tesco, demand has rocketed by an unprecedented 200 per cent in the last two years with the supermarket adding more suppliers and increasing its range of cottage cheese products to maintain interest.

In the last few months, it has worked with one of its key dairy suppliers, Grahams The Family Dairy, of Stirlingshire, in Scotland, to launch a cottage cheese with added protein.

And next month it hopes to widen that growing appeal even further by launching two innovative new cottage cheese products.

It has also begun working with American cream cheese manufacturer, Philadelphia, which has created its first ever cottage cheese product and which launched exclusively at Tesco stores in the autumn.

TikTok food trends often result in sudden sales spikes and we saw that happen last year with Italian bread and cheese but this is a fully fledged culinary phenomenon that has brought a lot of extra business to the UK dairy industry.

“Cottage cheese became massively popular in the 70s and 80s as a tasty but low-fat filling for baked potatoes or avocados. Demand has been steady since then with sales traditionally rising in the summer months and in January because of the popularity of post-Christmas diets.

“But now, because it’s become so popular with a younger audience, we are ordering in as much as we can because we’re seeing all-time record demand. - Elizabeth Tomkins, Tesco cottage cheese buyer

The TikTok cottage cheese trend has been driven by food influencers posting their original recipes which have become popular with fitness fans and people wanting to increase their protein intake.

Among popular recipes are cottage cheese ice-cream and cheesecake, as an additive to scrambled eggs; added to salsa to make a protein-rich dip or lasagne instead of using ricotta; and kitchen favourites such as pancakes, muffins. People are also jazzing it up by adding fruit, sliced vegetables and nuts.

The cottage cheese boom has seen demand at Grahams The Family Dairy double in the last few years – the equivalent of an extra two million kilogrammes sold, and business is now so brisk that the company is increasing its capacity by 50 per cent early in the New Year with about 30 extra staff being taken on.

The demand has simply been staggering and our cottage cheese business is now bigger than our milk business – which is what our dairy farm was originally built around.

“We first noticed the trend around May 2023 but it has rocketed since then and we have literally gone into overdrive to keep up with the demand.

“The trend has caught on around the world and as a result we’re now exporting to places as far away as the Gulf States and Hong Kong.

“We have been working hard to produce new products and our next innovations launch exclusively very soon at Tesco. - Robert Graham, Grahams The Family Dairy

ENDS

Note

The Tesco Real Food site has many cottage cheese recipes. A popular one is Cottage cheese and oat pancakes.

For this you will need the following:

• 250g cottage cheese
• 100g porridge oats
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tsp rapeseed oil
• 4 tbsp Greek-style yogurt
• 4 tbsp honey or maple syrup (optional)

For the fruit salad

• ½ pineapple, chopped
• 1 passion fruit, pulp only
• ½ mango, chopped
• 1 banana, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Put the cottage cheese, oats, baking powder and eggs in a blender and whizz to a smooth batter.
   
   
2. Heat 1 tsp oil in a nonstick frying pan over a medium heat. Pour 1 tbsp dollops of batter into the pan and cook for 3 mins or until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook for 2 mins more. Transfer to a lined baking tray and keep warm in the oven. Repeat to make 12 pancakes.
   
   
3. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the fruit salad in a bowl. Serve alongside the pancakes with a spoonful of yogurt and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup, if you like.