Five Dairy-Centric News Items to Know as We Take on 2025

 

Happy New Year! 

Not sure when is the cut-off for such wishes, but this is my first blog of 2025. So Happy New Year! The last one was on Friday (December) the 13th! And wowza, so much has gone down since then.

Before I share the five dairy-centric newsy items you need to know before moving forward, please consider this quote from my friend KJ (Kimberlee) Burrington, vice president of technical development at the  American Dairy Products Institute. 

“It makes sense to use a dairy ingredient in a dairy product because you could reduce the need for other additives, many of which have unfamiliar names to consumers.”

Want to learn more about putting dairy back into dairy? Plan to attend ADPI’s newest event, the Global Ingredients Summit, which combines two of ADPI’s technical conferences--the Global Cheese Technology Forum and the Dairy Ingredients Technical Symposium--into one premier event. It will take place in Tampa on February 10 to 12, 2025. Link HERE for more information. 

Here are those five WOWZA items. 

1. GLP-1 medications, which initially were used to treat diabetes, are now being used as weight loss medications. They are “having a profound impact on how consumers allocate their food and beverage and nonfood spending,” according to a hot-off-the-presses study from Circana. High-quality, complete protein—like dairy proteins—are critical to shedding pounds in a healthful manner.

To better understand the implications of these medicines on the food and beverage industry, as well as the opportunities they present for dairy, link HERE to read “GLP-1s will dominate weight loss trends in 2025,” a recent article I wrote for Food Business News. 

The Circana report suggests, “Develop and promote products that align with the dietary needs of GLP-1 users. This includes high-protein, low-calorie or portion control options that support satiety and blood sugar regulation. Foods rich in fiber, as well as vegetables, eggs and nuts, can help boost GLP-1 levels naturally.” Dairy can help, too. 

In addition, “Ensure that GLP-1-friendly products are widely available and affordable. This can involve working with retailers to offer promotions and discounts on products that support GLP-1 users’ dietary needs.”

This will be a topic of discussion at the International Dairy Foods Associations’ upcoming Ice Cream and Cultured Innovation Conference. There will be a general session on “Unlocking the Potential of the GLP1Landscape.” For more information on the conference, link HERE.
 

 

2. Speaking of cultured dairy…fermented dairy foods are projected to boom in the next few years. A recent report from Future Market Insights expects the global fermented dairy products market to grow from an estimated value of $5.9 billion in 2025 to about $11.2 billion by 2035. This growth corresponds to a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% over the 10-year forecast period. 

Fueling this growth is consumer preference for natural, minimally processed foods and beverages. This category includes cottage cheese, kefir, probiotic drinks, sour cream, yogurt and more.

 

“The fermented dairy products market is set for accelerated growth, driven by rising consumer health awareness, evolving food preferences and expanded global distribution networks,” says Nandini Roy Choudhury, client partner at Future Market Insights. “Industry players should leverage these trends to tap into emerging opportunities and innovate to meet shifting consumer demands.”

 

 

The U.S. dairy industry needs to work with retailers to do a better job of helping shoppers identify functional fermented foods in the supermarket. Check out these refrigerators in Spain. Products are categorized by functional benefit and composition. 

3. And guess what? Dairy is healthy. We all knew that. The FDA recently released a final rule updating the definition of the voluntary, implied nutrient content claim “healthy, modifying criteria that had not been revised in three decades. The new definition is consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are set to be updated for 2025 to 2030 by the end of this year. 

To qualify for the healthy claim, a product needs to:

• Contain one or more food group or subgroup equivalent from the Dietary Guidelines, including dairy (fat free and low fat), fruits, vegetables, grains and/or protein foods; and
• Meet set limits for the three dietary components of public health concern: sodium, added sugars and saturated fat. This eliminates the claim on flavored milks and yogurts high in added sugars. But I know all of you are working on getting those levels down.

Companies can begin to use the new standards for the voluntary healthy claim on February 25, 2025. Any companies using the voluntary healthy claim must adhere to the new standards by February 25, 2028.

4. The food-at-home category is witnessing significant growth as we enter the new year, thanks largely to shifting economic conditions, technological advancements and consumer preferences. The 84.51 company, the retail data science, insights and media analysts helping Kroger and its partners create customer-centric shopper journeys, has identified a number of food-at-home trends to watch in 2025. They include:

• Competing on value: Value is intertwined with trust, and consumers are looking for brands and retailers they can trust to help them stretch their budget with quality food.
• Mindful consumption: Consumers are focused on making informed decisions that balance financial constraints with health and wellness.
• Demand for convenience: Consumers are seeking ways to reduce the mental effort required for meal planning and preparation.
• Global flavors: The demand for food that reflects different cultures and flavors is increasing as quickly as the U.S. population diversifies.

Dairy is all this and more. 

5. The final wowza item may be a bit premature, but I predict it will follow a similar trajectory path as mochi, which went mainstream in the U.S. about a decade ago. This trend complements the “global flavors” item above, and its Thai Iced Coffee. 

In case you missed Thursday’s Daily Dose of Dairy, Nestle USA has teamed up with HBO to offer Thai-inspired Coffee Mate The White Lotus Creamers. The third season of this series will come out February 16 and takes place in Thailand. This is a country where sweetened condensed milk is a staple. It’s a flavor profile rather unknown in the U.S. I only remember it being used when I was child to make Magic Cookie Bars. 

Anyway, sweetened condensed milk is the base for traditional Thai iced coffee and is the flavor profile of one of the new Coffee mate creamers. It has an overtly sweet caramelized flavor profile that complements one of the forecasted biggest flavors of 2025, which is brown sugar.

Brown sugar features a rich, complex flavor profile that makes it popular in a wide array of foods and beverages, including lattes. Since brown sugar is not refined to remove all of its molasses content, it retains an intense caramel-like richness and a warm color that makes this ingredient popular among foodies and culinary influencers on social media.

Consider working these flavors into everything from butter to cream cheese spread to ice cream to yogurt.
Happy New Year!