In the 1967 musical “Dr. Doolittle” starring Rex Harrison in the title role, Anthony Newley (Matthew Mugg) sings about his friend “who’ll blarney when he can,” extoling that “the moon is made of apple pie and once a month it’s eaten by the sun,” while “the sun is made of cheddar cheese, and the doctor even knows the reason why.”
But fantasy or not, consumers are “over the moon, sun, and stars” over real cheese. In fact, Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI) notes that the natural cheese category generated $16.4 billion in dollar sales in U.S. multi-outlets, a 2.7% year-over-year (YoY) increase for the 52 weeks ending Sept. 4.