The past, present and future of cheese

The UK cheese market is currently worth £3.5 billion, making it the seventh largest category in grocery, and the second largest dairy category after milk. It has grown 6.3 percent over the last year, well ahead of total grocery which grew at 5.3 percent. This rapid expansion can be attributed to shoppers buying higher volumes of cheese per trip, and more frequently, compared to other grocery items.

Cheese is one of the nation’s favourite foods, with the category seeing phenomenal growth throughout the pandemic, as people cooked more from scratch, attempting to recreate restaurant dishes at home. This increase in demand was also due to consumers working more from home and consequently seeking out nutritious, convenient and good value breakfast and lunch options, such as sandwiches.