![\"Whey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/355272.jpg\" "\\"Whey")
<\/p>\nWASHINGTON, Aug 4 \u2014 Whey protein used to be considered a mere byproduct of cheesemaking, but the dietary supplement is now coveted due to high-protein diets popularised across social media \u2014 an explosion that is radically reshaping the American dairy industry.<\/p>\n
Long sold as a mix-in powder or protein bar, whey can now be found across US supermarket shelves in products ranging from breakfast cereals and bagels to pretzels and instant noodles.<\/p>\n
Some of the biggest food brands have hopped on the trend, like chip giant Frito-Lay offering \u201cProtein Nacho Cheese\u201d Doritos and Starbucks debuting a line of \u201chigh protein\u201d beverages.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeven years ago, a lot of people would take it for training, but now I feel like it\u2019s very commonplace for everyone,\u201d architectural design coordinator Carly Rowcotsky told AFP.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old said she lives an active lifestyle, and takes whey to help repair her muscles after working out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of time to prepare my own meals, so it\u2019s just kind of like convenient to have some type of supplement,\u201d Rowcotsky said, downing a neon-pink whey protein shake whose label promised 15 grammes of protein per serving.<\/p>\n
\u2018Protein-maxxing\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Chuck Nicholson, a professor of supply chain management at Penn State University, the frenzy is fuelled by several factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial media is really driving a lot of people to think that protein is a really healthy alternative,\u201d Nicholson told AFP, pointing to diet trends like \u201cprotein-maxxing,\u201d in which online users try to maximise their protein intake, often to excessive levels.<\/p>\n
On top of that, US demand for whey and other protein supplements \u201cis driven a lot by the GLP-related drugs and the dietary advice that people are getting,\u201d he added, as users of weight loss drugs including Wegovy and Ozempic are advised to increase protein in their diets to preserve muscle mass.<\/p>\n
Protein mania is even reflected in the US government\u2019s nutrition guidelines, which updated in March to raise the recommended levels of daily protein intake from 0.8 grammes per kilogramme of body weight to 1.2-1.6 grammes per kilogramme.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtein and healthy fats are essential and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines,\u201d Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said earlier this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Whey protein powder is displayed on shelves at an H-E-B grocery store on June 29, 2026 in Austin, Texas. \u2014 Brandon Bell\/Getty Images North America\/Getty Images pic via AFP <\/p>\n
More whey, more cheese\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, this upsurge in whey protein demand is facing a reality check from the dairy industry.<\/p>\n
Since whey is a refined product resulting from cheese production, \u201cthere\u2019s kind of a capacity constraint, both in terms of what the cows are making, the amount of cheese capacity that we have, and the amount of capacity that we have to actually make those products from the whey,\u201d Nicholson explained.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, the whey sold in consumer products requires specialised, expensive equipment to filter it into high-protein concentrates and isolates.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a long time we didn\u2019t actually do much with the whey,\u201d Nicholson said. \u201cIn some cases, it was fed to animals or was actually thrown away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dairy industry foresaw this growing trend, with International Dairy Food Association CEO Michael Dykes saying \u201cdairy companies have invested US$13 billion (RM53 billion)\u00a0in new capacity, technology and supply chain optimisation\u201d to meet demand.<\/p>\n
White gold\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joshua White, an expert at dairy product marketer T.C. Jacoby & Co., said despite the increased capacity for whey production, \u201cthe market has still demanded more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prices have skyrocketed as a result, with industry data showing cost jumps of around 40 per cent in recent months, with the largest hike seen for high-concentrate whey protein, which has soared 150 per cent in price.<\/p>\n
As a domino effect, those higher prices have increased the product\u2019s profitability for cheesemakers, incentivizing them to make more liquid whey.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes people say, you know, I make the money on the whey and I…cover my costs based on making the cheese,\u201d Nicholson said.<\/p>\n
An oversimplification perhaps, he added, but \u201cit\u2019s definitely true that the return on whey right now relative to the return on cheese is larger.\u201d<\/p>\n
But dairy industry expert Kathleen Noble Wolfley cautioned that cheese production still outweighs whey production in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we going to start making cheese for the whey? I always think about it as like…is the tail wagging the dog rather than the dog wagging the tail,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I say we\u2019re probably closer to that commentary than we were five years ago.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, Aug 4 \u2014 Whey protein used to be considered a mere byproduct of cheesemaking, but the dietary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[240019,102,240024,240195,6636,70762,56,54,55,2866,14183],"class_list":["post-726793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-american-dairy-industry","tag-health","tag-international-dairy-food-association","tag-louise-le-borgne","tag-nutrition","tag-penn-state-university","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-washington","tag-wegovy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}