Albertsons is selling a lot of cottage cheese. The grocery chain’s CEO thinks she knows why.
“This one, I had to double-check the numbers, but cottage cheese is actually a strong growth category,” CEO Susan Morris told analysts on the company’s earnings call.
Morris was asked whether Albertsons had noticed an increase in healthier items due to the rapid rise of GLP-1 drugs, which include Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic. Patients who use the drugs are advised to eat protein-rich foods like cottage cheese.
It’s not just the diet drugs that are driving demand, though, Morris said.
“Yes, some of that’s from the focus on protein, lower carbs, perhaps GLP-1 users, and then, just being totally frank, TikTok is driving some of that,” she said. “So, we’re leaning into those categories.”
TikTok creators have found creative ways to get their cottage cheese fix. Good Culture, one of the top sellers, told Business Insider it noticed sales taking off in 2023 when creators talked about using cottage cheese in ice cream. Since then, popular videos have cottage cheese mixed into pancakes, bagels, and flatbread batter.
On TikTok, there are more than 86,000 videos posted with the hashtag #cottagecheese. One of the most popular videos, 3 ways to make cottage cheese toast, has 5.3 million views.
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Albertsons is not alone in noticing this trend.
Industry data shows that cottage cheese reached $1.75 billion, according to Chicago-based market research firm Circana. The data, published by the trade publication Dairy Foods, indicate that sales increased 18% in a 52-week stretch ending in Feburary. Last year, sales were up 16%.
Good Culture, which launched a decade ago, told BI it recently partnered with a collection of creators, including chef and Mŏkbar owner Esther Choi, James Beard finalist Fariyal Abdullahi, and NYT bestselling author Jake Cohen.
In 2024, Daisy, one of the mainstays in the space, announced a partnership with Bachelor star Daisy Kent.
It wasn’t always this way. According to US Department of Agriculture data, in 1975, Americans consumed an average of 4.6 pounds of cottage cheese per person. Consumption decreased in the decades since, bottoming out at an average of 1.9 pounds per person in 2021.
Consumption has been rising in recent years — perhaps thanks to TikTok. In 2023, the most recent year available, Americans consumed an average of 2.1 pounds of cottage cheese per person.
