As we noted in our State of the Industry report last month, protein and convenience demands have shined a light on the cheese category, and product innovation is booming. The natural cheese category is doing well. Most of the category’s segments saw dollar and unit sales increase. Yet the processed cheese category continues to struggle. According to a survey from Chicago-based Mintel, one in six consumers who buy or eat cheese (17%) indicate they avoid processed cheese altogether.
The natural cheese category’s dollar sales increased 5% to $12.7 billion and unit sales were up 3% to 3.6 billion, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago, for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 4, 2015. For the processed cheese category, dollar sales were down 1.3% to $3.1 billion, and units dropped 5.1% to 830.2 million.