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 improve her protein consumption.

The arduous half for her was doing so with out additionally growing 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 noticed that all the things tasted just about the identical to me, and I began then actively searching for these merchandise.”

So she was excited when a Canadian restaurant chain launched high-protein lattes earlier this 12 months. Andie, who didn’t wish to give her surname, drinks them with out sweetener, and describes it as a “first rate” product.

Is it a dearer food plan?

Dwelling in Vancouver, Andie says costs are already fairly excessive. “Excessive protein is normally a few {dollars} additional, so it is not an enormous distinction.”

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

Surveys present customers 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 progress in gross sales of merchandise labelling themselves as protein-rich, in comparison with the earlier 12 months, in response to analysis group NielsenIQ.

Milk has been one beneficiary of the protein craze.

Final 12 months noticed the primary improve in milk consumption since 2009, in response to knowledge from the US Department of Agriculture.

That is partly being attributed to the keenness for protein.

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

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

Whereas dairy is doing effectively, plant-based alternate options to dairy merchandise are going via some lean instances.

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. Persons are looking extra for numerous forms of cow milk now than ever earlier than.

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

In line with NielsenIQ, milk’s world market worth is sort of eight instances 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 quicker.

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 annoyed by the keenness over protein. They level out repeatedly that almost all residents of wealthy international locations already devour extra protein than they want.

The exceptions could also be for sure teams, together with the severely malnourished, the aged, girls going via menopause, and other people with persistent inflammatory situations.

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

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

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

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

And since most individuals do not have limitless cash to spend on meals, high-protein merchandise could possibly 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 ought to be seen as a hero nutrient, in response to many nutritionists, it ought to be fibre quite than protein.

Dr Amati believes: “The recognition of high-protein merchandise typically is solely resulting from advertising. Producers can simply [and cheaply] add additional 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.

Finally 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 top 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.

Alternatively, 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 aim actually is to assist the dairy trade transfer into the twenty first century,” Mr Mac Millan says.

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

He says that some US customers at the moment are searching for out beta-lactoglobulin, which is excessive within the amino acid leucine, quite than non-specific whey protein.

The growing variety of folks utilizing weight-loss injections may additionally assist drive the corporate’s progress, Mr Mac Millan believes. Individuals involved about quickly dropping muscle may attain for high-protein merchandise.

He acknowledges that Verley’s protein shall be dearer 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 better scale. It’s presently searching for regulatory approval in numerous international locations.

Total, on the subject of diet, most people is extra more likely to hearken to associates, 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 will not be elite athletes, however many are searching for to eat and drink as in the event that they have been.

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

And social media strikes quicker than the folks making or regulating meals.

In the meanwhile, it appears to be good enterprise to give attention to protein – whether or not it is really useful or not.