Whey protein is running out as food companies put it in everything

Big Food is packing protein into crisps, cereals, waffles and even Starbucks’ lattes, and consumers can’t get enough of it.

But that insatiable demand now has the industry grappling with shortages and skyrocketing prices of whey protein, forcing some manufacturers to halt production or reformulate their top-selling products with alternative ingredients.

In early May, a supplier delivered bad news to baking and beverage company HelloAmino: It had run out of whey protein. Canada-based HelloAmino uses the ingredient in all of the 30 high-protein baking mixes it sells. Founder Aelie Swift found another supplier, but it means importing whey protein isolate from the US at a price that’s 50 per cent higher and due to increase again soon.

The new whey protein delivered other complications: it dried out the company’s baked goods due to the manufacturer’s different processing method.

“Our pancakes came out like sawdust,” Swift said. The company plans to reformulate using a different combination of proteins, since “whey has become too expensive to continue to use the way we previously have,” she said.

The protein mania that has swept the food industry in Australia and many other parts of the world is starting to run smack into the realities of a supply chain that is struggling to keep up. As the biggest food companies raced to roll out higher-protein versions of beloved items, including Mars’s Protein Eggo waffles, cold foams from Starbucks and an endless proliferation of protein-boosted bars, shakes, soda, lollies and other snacks, whey protein became a star ingredient. It’s a complete protein that dissolves well, is digested easily and can be added to a variety of foods.

But now there isn’t enough of it to go around. Some suppliers already are sold out for the remainder of the year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. What is available has shot up in price: Offers for high-protein whey concentrate have jumped more than 40 per cent on average just in the last couple of months.

Whey protein is a byproduct of cheese making, so processors can’t simply ramp up production of the protein on its own. During the cheese-making process, milk is separated into curds and the protein-rich liquid whey is then pasteurised and dried to turn it into protein powders.

“You start to think of yourself as a protein company, not a cheese company,” said Bryan Weller, the vice president of commodity and dairy sales at dairy cooperative Agri-Mark, which manufactures cheese under its Cabot Creamery brand. “That’s just how crazy it’s gotten.” The company is completely over