Gen Z Can't Get Enough of This 'Grandparents' Food — and Suppliers Can't Keep Up With Demand

Once thought of as a kitschy diet food, lumpy bumpy cottage cheese is seeing an unprecedented rise in demand thanks to health influencers on TikTok.

CNN reports that "young, protein-hungry consumers have whipped up new recipes and posted them online," creating a buzz that brands and manufacturers are struggling to satisfy.

Related: Dubai Chocolate TikTok Popularity Causes Pistachio Shortage

John Crawford, SVP of client insights for dairy at the market research firm Circana, told the news outlet that for decades, cottage cheese was considered "your grandparents' food," but "TikTok changed all that."

Cottage cheese sales in the U.S. jumped 20% year over year, according to data from Circana. That follows an approximate 17% increase in 2024 and 2023.

Cottage cheese is high in protein, low in sugar, and "appropriate for a GLP-1 diet," reports CNN. And has led to a slew of recipe videos that have gone viral on TikTok, like this one for "strawberry cheesecake ice cream."

@lainiecooks Strawberry cheesecake ice cream ??..im obsessed #cottagecheeseicecream #cottagecheeserecipe #highproteindessert ♬ Caalm Dooown - EL Locco

"Organic Valley Cottage Cheese is selling faster than we can make it," Andrew Westrich, marketing manager at Organic Valley, told CNN. Sales increased more than 30% in the first half of 2025, he says.

Good Culture went so far as to post an apology to consumers who are having a hard time finding their products on grocery store shelves. "[D]emand has been WILD," they wrote, promising that they "are working around the clock to get us back in stock."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by good culture (@good_culture)

Is this just another chapter in the fad diet life of cottage cheese?

Crawford doesn't think so. "It is not a fad when you are seeing double-digit growth in both dollars and in volume, quarter over quarter over quarter, for two years," he told CNN.