Canadian dairy companies are expanding production amid a national cottage-cheese shortage

Gay Lea Foods, the maker of Nordica cottage cheese, said on Tuesday that it would spend $200m expanding its dairy-manufacturing site on Clayson Road in Toronto. The company said the project would significantly increase production and help address what it described as a “national cottage cheese shortage”.

Suzanna Dalrymple, Gay Lea’s president and chief executive, said the company’s customers were requesting more product but that its existing facilities were operating at their current capacity. The expansion is scheduled for completion in 2028.

Statistics Canada data show that domestic cottage-cheese production reached 9,870 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 8,571 tonnes in the same period of 2025. The increase was 1,299 tonnes, or 15%.

The product has been promoted as a source of protein during the continued circulation of high-protein diets on social-media platforms. A half-cup serving of Nordica cottage cheese contains about 12 to 14 grams of protein, equivalent to more than one-fifth of Health Canada’s recommended daily protein intake for most people.

Sylvain Charlebois, director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, said consumers were seeking more affordable animal proteins and that dairy was benefiting from that interest. Dalrymple said TikTok had contributed to the product’s popularity. She said the videos initially made the company wonder whether the attention represented a fad, but added that it had not proved to be one.

Agropur, a dairy co-operative, announced plans earlier in 2026 to increase its cottage-cheese production. Charlebois said the investment decisions by Gay Lea Foods and Agropur indicated confidence that demand would persist over the long term. The article was reported by Global News, with additional reporting by Jacqueline Hansen.