Just the words “cottage cheese” may conjure up images of the goopy, runny stuff mounded high on a plate next to some slices of melon in the “lighter fare” section on a diner’s menu, perhaps. But cottage cheese wants to shed that uncool, unappetizing image, and be more like its cooler dairy cousin, Greek yogurt.

Sales of Greek yogurt are way up amid consumers’ shifting tastes toward high-protein foods, prompting cottage cheese makers to shift their products in the same way, with new flavors and packaging to help boost interest, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In contrast, though once beloved by dieters in the 1970s, “Cottage cheese has been all alone on the shelf for years, just begging to be noticed,” Andrew Westrich, a brand manager at Organic Valley tells the WSJ. “Now, lo and behold, consumers are realizing there are cultures, protein and good fat in it.”

The bosses in the cottage cheese industry are now trying out new flavors like maple vanilla, Kalamata olive, and basil Parmesan, with single-serve containers that are akin to yogurt cups to attract folks on the go.

“Until now, cottage cheese didn’t do anything while yogurt innovation exploded,” Gerard Meyer, chief executive of Muuna cottage cheese, told the WSJ, adding that he thinks a creamier product will draw shoppers. To that end, his company introduced single-serving cups in August with flavors like pineapple and mango that promised “a melt-in-your-mouth experience.”

General Mills is also getting in on the cottage cheese game with investments in a company called Good Culture that makes a line of “gourmet” organic cottage cheeses in single-serving containers with flavors like blueberry acaí chia.

These efforts seem to be working: cottage cheese sales are showing sigs of improvement after years of flat sales. That being said, the food only makes up about 2% of total dairy sales, John Crawford, a dairy analyst at IRI tells the WSJ.

Could Cottage Cheese Ever Be Cool? [The Wall Street Journal]

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