Matthew Kwasnicki’s love of cottage cheese isn’t a passing fancy — it dates back to his childhood.
Kwasnicki said he’s “a regular Canadian dude” who grew up with his mother often making cottage cheese recipes and side dishes.
These days, however, he’s among consumers wondering if they’ll come up empty when they go cottage cheese shopping, due to shortages linked to the rising popularity of the dairy product.
The price of cottage cheese — which is rich in protein and consists of moist curds — has also skyrocketed.
“Cottage cheese is a good source of protein and dairy, and it’s easy on the stomach. I definitely enjoy it and it helps with routine,” Kwasnicki said during a shopping trip to Fred’s Farm Fresh in Windsor, Ont.
He said he’s found cottage cheese “missing from shelves” at various grocery stores.
“Bring back the cottage cheese, man. It’s a good topping on stuff. We need more cottage cheese. It goes well with everything.”
There was a time when cottage cheese was a diet staple, but that’s given way to other protein offerings — like smoothies and meal and snack bars — that have become popular due to the idea adding more protein has health benefits.
Matthew Kwasnicki shops at Fred’s Farm Fresh in Windsor, Ont. He says cottage cheese is one of his favourites, but he sometimes can’t find it in stores. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC)
Social media is also helping drive the cottage cheese craze. Based on a recent search, TikTok featured more than 115,000 videos with a cottage cheese hashtag, with influencers posting recipes for “cottage cheese chips,” “cottage cheese toast” and “high-protein cottage cheese ice cream.”
Food industry members are feeling the cottage cheese pinch as well.
Consumers advised to buy extra cottage cheese
Fred Bouzide, owner of Fred’s Farm Fresh, said that in his three decades of selling it, he has never seen this level of demand.
“It’s been difficult to keep our supply full. It’s a diet issue more than anything else. People are switching over to other proteins than meat,” said Bouzide.
At the time of this interview, he had a supply of only six or so containers left, and while more are being ordered, suppliers are telling him “there’s no supply.”
Fred Bouzide of Fred’s Farm Fresh in Windsor says he’s never seen demand for cottage cheese be so high that it’s led to a shortage. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC)
Bouzide’s advice to consumers is to buy extra cottage cheese when they can.
Matthew Shurvell, another shopper interviewed by CBC Windsor, said he tends to consume cottage cheese once a week in different ways.
“Natively from Manitoba, cottage cheese has always sort of been a background radiation kind of thing,” he said.
Shurvell said his go-to recipe would be cottage cheese perogies or having it on top of his spaghetti.
Trend not expected to ‘die off anytime soon’
Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, said it’s remarkable that cottage cheese has been this popular for at least a couple of years.
“The trend is only growing on social media, which is really interesting. Typically TikTok trends don’t last that long, maybe six months or a couple of weeks,” Charlebois told CBC Windsor.
“People are looking for proteins that are much cheaper, more affordable, and dairy protein compared to meat proteins are much cheaper right now. That’s really helping the popularity of dairy proteins.”
Charlebois said yogurt is also garnering social media hype, but not as much as cottage cheese due to “protein-maxxing” — a viral social media trend focused on maximizing dietary protein intake to build muscle and curb hunger — and the fact cottage cheese’s protein content is higher than yogurt.
He said pairing cottage cheese with cantaloupe used to be a wide practice, but that’s changed as social media influencers have shown its versatility.
“We’re seeing a realignment on the supply side. … The dairy sector is not expecting this trend to die off anytime soon.”
Cottage cheese prices in Canada have jumped roughly 60% since 2020 — from about $3.20 to over $5 per tub today.
Ironically, just as prices climb, TikTok has rediscovered cottage cheese, turning a once-declining product into a high-protein trend again. pic.twitter.com/Jzii2f9NiP
Charlebois said the national average prices for cottage cheese have risen roughly 60 per cent since 2020, when cottage cheese was about $3.20 a tub, and in some parts of the country, it’s “even higher.”
“The demand is really making cottage cheese more expensive. Even with higher prices, we’re seeing shortages in many parts of the country.
“Animal protein like chicken, beef and pork, the three components of the meat trifecta, are more expensive this year compared to last year, pushing people to look for options like cottage cheese.”
Investing to boost cottage cheese production
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, compared to the 28,139 tonnes produced in 2024.
Gay Lea Foods, producer of Nordica cottage cheese, is upping its investments in cottage cheese.
Robin Redstone, a spokesperson for the company, said they’re living through the hype and the shortage.
“We’ve seen demand for cottage cheese increase steadily over the last few years. I think it aligns very well with consumer interest in broader health and wellness trends,” she said.
“We have already invested significantly at Gay Lea Foods to increase production across our entire Nordica cottage cheese line … working with our retail partners and looking for ways to meet the demand.”
Redstone hopes the appetite for cottage cheese continues.
“The more of it that we can make, the better it is for our dairy farmers and the dairy industry in Canada.”