On the upside of consumers

When consumers embrace a particular healthy eating pattern, if that pattern is easy, delicious and affordable, they stick with it for the long term. That’s been the case for dairy protein, which has seen steadily growing demand for 15 years.

But what if demand outruns supply? Usually that means that market prices rise and the effect of rising prices brings and end to rising demand. If that holds true then rising consumer demand and prices could bring an end to the growth of dairy protein. But perhaps it won’t, as the US egg market has recently shown.

An idea that was voiced noisily in 2024 by the media and some in the food industry was that one consequence of the spread of bird flu that year would be egg shortages, the price of eggs would rise and consumers would buy fewer eggs. The reality turned out to be quite different. 

Eggs go boom

In the US market, the price of eggs has surged in 2024. In the month of January 2025, according to Circana supermarket sales data analysed by fresh food industry experts 210 Analytics, the price of eggs was up 67% compared to the year before. 

But sales of eggs did not fall in 2024. As the graphic shows, the sales value of the egg category jumped by 73% to US$2 billion in the month. As for the volume of eggs sold, not only did this not fall, but it also actually increased by 4.1%.

It’s the opposite of what you might expect. But, looking at food culture and the evolution of consumer beliefs and behaviours, it’s not too surprising. Consumer interest in animal protein has become the biggest growth trend in our industry. Eggs are an easy go-to for consumers because: 

1. They are a natural, unprocessed source of protein. 
2. Consumer fears about their cholesterol and fat content have been gradually fading over the past 15 years (and in case you didn’t know, there is a very good scientific basis for that change). 
3. Eggs are starting to be better-known among health-forward consumers as a source of multiple nutrients beyond protein. 
4. Eggs have a strong place in every food culture and are used in familiar, good-tasting dishes from snacks to main meals. 
5. Eggs are versatile; there’s a huge variety of ways they can be used in the kitchen. 

You could make approximately the same points for dairy protein. Like eggs, dairy is a source of natural, good-tasting protein, and that’s what people want more than anything else.

So strongly are consumers moving towards natural dairy proteins that in many markets traditional breakfast cereal channels are in trouble.  In Europe Nestlé’s breakfast cereal business has made 300 staff redundant and closed a factory as demand for cereal falls.

The slide in sales of big breakfast cereal brands has also taken hold in the US, where Post, the country’s third-biggest cereal maker with a 20% share, plans to close several manufacturing facilities, with the loss of 300 jobs. Kellogg also reports a fall in volume as consumer consumption habits shift away from the established cereal brands towards small challenger brands and above all high protein dairy and eggs. Nielsen IQ data suggests that volume sales in the cereal category declined by 4% overall in 2024. To put that fall into context, sales of US eggs grew 4% by volume in 2024, even as retail prices rose by 67%.

Gen Z is leading the move away from the old cereal brands. This is the same generation which is embracing animal protein more than other generations (see New Nutrition Business 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2025).

The decline of breakfast cereals and the rise in demand for eggs, despite price increases which should have been crippling for demand, illustrate that, for a long time to come, to  consumers are likely to maintain their consumption of dairy protein and show a willingness to pay more. The dairy protein trend has another decade of success yet to come.