Food firms scramble to meet the high-protein craze

A number of months in the past Andie began taking part in round with a health app. It advisable that she considerably enhance her protein consumption.

The exhausting half for her was doing so with out additionally rising energy.

“So I began looking for high-protein alternate options to issues I used to be already consuming,” she explains.

This included yogurt, milk, espresso, cereal and pasta.

“I spotted that all the things tasted just about the identical to me, and I began then actively in search of these merchandise.”

So she was excited when a Canadian restaurant chain launched high-protein lattes earlier this yr. Andie, who didn’t need to give her surname, drinks them with out sweetener, and describes it as a “respectable” product.

Is it a costlier weight-reduction plan?

Residing in Vancouver, Andie says costs are already fairly excessive. “Excessive protein is often a few {dollars} further, so it isn’t a giant distinction.”

Like Andie, you will have seen on grocery store cabinets and restaurant menus a high-protein craze sweeping the meals sector.

Surveys present shoppers more and more care concerning the protein content material of their meals.

Within the US between March 2024 and March 2025, there was 4.8% quantity development in gross sales of merchandise labelling themselves as protein-rich, in comparison with the earlier yr, in accordance with analysis group NielsenIQ.

Milk has been one beneficiary of the protein craze.

Final yr noticed the primary enhance in milk consumption since 2009, in accordance with knowledge from the US Department of Agriculture.

That is partly being attributed to the keenness for protein.

The so-called back-to-cow motion consists of merchandise like bovine colostrum, the protein-rich milk cows produce quickly after giving start.

The protein development has been particularly pushed by the expanded availability of protein from whey, sometimes a by-product of cheese manufacturing. Whey protein is a billion-dollar sector that continues to develop.

Whereas dairy is doing properly, plant-based alternate options to dairy merchandise are going by some lean occasions.

The gross sales quantity of milk alternate options has began to say no, primarily pushed by decrease consumption within the Americas. Almond milk particularly is dropping market share.

Slowing gross sales are mirrored in slowing chatter on-line. Whereas US searches for “oat milk” outnumbered Google searches for “complete milk” in 2020, in 2025, that has reversed. Individuals are looking extra for numerous forms of cow milk now than ever earlier than.

One cause is the perceived naturalness of meals from cows, together with collagen and beef tallow.

Based on NielsenIQ, milk’s international market worth is sort of eight occasions bigger than that of milk alternate options ($69.3bn; £50.8bn, in contrast with $8.4bn; £6.2bn).

Milk’s market worth can also be rising a lot sooner.

Plant-based producers are responding to the demand for high-protein drinks by mentioning protein extra on their packaging, and reformulating their merchandise to incorporate extra protein.

Nutritionists are sometimes pissed off by the zeal over protein. They level out time and again that almost all residents of wealthy international locations already eat extra protein than they want.

The exceptions could also be for sure teams, together with the severely malnourished, the aged, ladies going by menopause, and other people with persistent inflammatory circumstances.

Federica Amati is a analysis fellow on the Faculty of Public Well being at Imperial Faculty London. She can also be the top nutritionist for the diet firm Zoe.

Dr Amati worries that “individuals are being hoodwinked into considering ‘excessive protein’ on a label essentially implies that it’s wholesome. Actually, it is one other well being halo.”

Whereas extra consumption of protein will not be more likely to hurt most individuals’s well being, “consuming extra protein than your physique can use throughout midlife is linked to an elevated threat of a number of illnesses, together with most cancers,” Dr Amati warns.

“An vital level on this, although, is that plant-based sources of protein do not appear to extend most cancers threat.”

And since most individuals do not have limitless cash to spend on meals, high-protein merchandise might be an unhelpful distraction.

“The value of recent complete meals goes up so customers are greatest off shopping for extra complete meals, and the usual already high-whey pure Greek yogurt with out the markup,” Dr Amati feedback. “And bear in mind, most of us can get loads of the protein we’d like if we’re consuming sufficient complete meals.”

If something needs to be seen as a hero nutrient, in accordance with many nutritionists, it needs to be fibre fairly than protein.

Dr Amati believes: “The recognition of high-protein merchandise basically is solely as a consequence of advertising and marketing. Producers can simply [and cheaply] add further protein to their merchandise and whack the value up.”

Companies are responding to that demand.

At French start-up Verley a gleaming row of stainless-steel tanks, referred to as fermentors, maintain particular microorganisms being ate up sugars.

Ultimately they will produce beta-lactoglobulin, a protein present in whey.

The staff at Verley, a French startup, will then purify the protein, together with extracting the lactose.

The tip result’s a high-protein powder that’s basically dairy, however which Verley says is appropriate for vegans as no cows are concerned.

The method is each conventional and cutting-edge, believes Stéphane Mac Millan, Verley’s CEO.

On the one hand, fermentation has an extended historical past in French meals tradition, together with in cheesemaking.

However, Verley desires to modernise dairy by honing the dietary advantages whereas lowering the environmental impacts. Dairy manufacturing requires massive quantities of water and land, whereas producing massive quantities of greenhouse gases.

“A purpose actually is to assist the dairy business transfer into the twenty first century,” Mr Mac Millan says.

Mr Mac Millan is betting that nutrition-conscious shoppers will care more and more not solely about getting sufficient whey protein, however about getting particular types of it.

He says that some US shoppers at the moment are in search of out beta-lactoglobulin, which is excessive within the amino acid leucine, fairly than non-specific whey protein.

The rising variety of individuals utilizing weight-loss injections might additionally assist drive the corporate’s development, Mr Mac Millan believes. Folks involved about quickly dropping muscle would possibly attain for high-protein merchandise.

He acknowledges that Verley’s protein shall be costlier than whey protein initially. “However contemplating that we’re bringing extra to the desk and we’re sustainable, it is regular that there’s a premium.”

The corporate can also be hoping to convey prices down with higher scale. It’s presently in search of regulatory approval in numerous international locations.

Total, in relation to diet, most of the people is extra more likely to take heed to mates, households and influencers than to consultants like him, acknowledges Jack Bobo, govt director of the Rothman Household Institute for Meals Research on the College of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

That is partly associated to the aspirational nature of a lot health content material on social media, notably concentrating on younger males. Most viewers and listeners are usually not elite athletes, however many are in search of to eat and drink as in the event that they have been.

One issue is that customers are considerably fickle. Soymilk is among the many least expensive and highest-protein various milks, but it has misplaced floor to the newcomers even because the protein craze has intensified.

And social media strikes sooner than the individuals making or regulating meals.

In the intervening time, it appears to be sensible enterprise to concentrate on protein – whether or not it is actually useful or not.