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For Retail & Foodservice
Buyers, category teams, sourcing and chefs. What is moving cheese and dairy through the chilled aisle and the menu, the producers and suppliers worth knowing, and the rooms where they gather.
Analysis and news
22 pieces filed for Retail & Foodservice
Everything in The Dairy Mail tagged with the topics this role owns, newest and most strategic first. The Retail & Foodservice hub adds partners, events and GROW.
The next dairy growth story is cultured
With protein claims now table stakes, fermentation expertise and culture-led texture will decide which dairy businesses keep shoppers.
16 July 2026
2026 the volatility year
2026 will not be the recovery year the sector expected but the year that resets it, splitting shoppers into clearer tiers and leaving mainstream Cheddar the most exposed.
27 April 2026
Cheddar rises 9% in a month and still trails the milk price
Mild Cheddar rose 9% in September, taking a litre made into Cheddar and whey to 39.08 pence and putting cheese back above butter and powder at the factory gate, but the October milk price rises were announced weeks before that figure was published, and AHDB says Cheddar prices remain too low to cover them.
29 September 2026
The invoice arrives this autumn. Nobody can tell you what it says.
The most expensive packaging decision available to a mid-sized processor this year is not a material decision at all: packaging with missing recyclability data is rated red, so 100 tonnes rated red by default rather than by design costs £13,000 more than the same tonnage rated green — larger than the gap between a realistic pack mix and a perfect one.
22 September 2026
The three numbers in your packaging budget are last year's
Year-two EPR resets the rate and starts charging on recyclability, so the number worth working out this month is not tonnage times rate but the red, amber and green split — and how much of the red is red only because an assessment was never submitted.
21 September 2026
ICDA 2026: the retail and foodservice winners at a glance
Waitrose & Partners dominated the 2026 retail titles with six categories, while Booths claimed Supreme Cheese Retailer.
26 June 2026
ICDA 2026: the supreme winners at a glance
Lactalis-Mainland New Zealand won Supreme Champion Cheese, with Bourne's Cheshire the leading British entry as Reserve Supreme.
26 June 2026
FETA PDO: provenance the buyer can verify
With speciality cheese outgrowing the category and feta supply tightening, buyers should secure genuine PDO product early rather than treat it as a commodity.
19 June 2026
The artisan advantage
Farmhouse and artisan cheesemakers punch far above their tonnage, defining reputation and premium value the wider dairy sector should treat as strategic.
19 June 2026
The whey forward 2026/27
UK and Irish producers who commit whey-processing capex before 2028 will capture premium margin for a decade, while those still exporting raw whey watch the value accrue elsewhere.
24 April 2026
GLP-1, protein and dairy's opportunity
As GLP-1 users prioritise nutritional density, dairy's high-quality protein becomes a real advantage if the sector repositions its messaging.
13 March 2026
Dairy Forum Ireland: a platform for a new era of Irish dairy
Dairy Forum Ireland is positioned to give Irish producers the visibility, buyer access and export readiness needed to compete internationally.
11 February 2026
Pizza hasn't peaked. Our interpretation of it has.
Pizza should be treated as a system to be engineered around cheese performance and provenance, not a mature category defended on price.
2 February 2026
Part 3 | from by-product to billion-euro asset
Ireland's whey advantage in functional nutrition rests on value extraction over volume, and sustaining it demands relentless investment in processing, research and talent.
13 January 2026
Cottage cheese: from trend to transformation
With volume up 29.4% and value up 26.2%, cottage cheese offers UK retailers, foodservice operators and artisan producers a rare simultaneous growth opportunity.
5 November 2025
New Zealand's ICDA success strengthens UK export prospects
Independent ICDA recognition gives Fonterra's grass-fed dairy the provenance and quality proof to win premium UK retail and foodservice listings post-FTA.
17 October 2025
Optimising dairy packaging for high-volume periods
Centralising packing-line control through one master terminal and adding vision inspection cuts costly manual data errors when high demand strains dairy production lines.
2 September 2025
WZ Packaging: leading the way in sustainable dairy packaging with the Enviro Ultra-Laminates range
WZ Packaging's Enviro Ultra-Laminates range shows dairy packaging can reduce material and improve recyclability without sacrificing barrier protection.
1 July 2025
Judging cheese & dairy awards | ICDA Awards
Judging at the ICDA is a strategic career advantage, giving professionals early insight into product innovation and shifting consumer trends.
7 March 2025
Celebrating cheese excellence | Academy of Cheese
Affinage is emerging as a strategic differentiator for British cheesemakers, driving product innovation and stronger positioning in a competitive market.
4 March 2025
British territorial cheeses - reimagining tradition for the modern consumer
British territorial cheeses can win younger shoppers by leaning into protein, sustainability, experience and award recognition rather than nostalgia alone.
27 February 2025
Solving the wonky cheese label problem
Inspiron Systems' Cheese Centralizer aims to position irregular cheese packs accurately before labelling, cutting the relabelling that can affect up to 30% of packs.
6 February 2025