Anyone connected to the dairy industry over the past few years will know well that the world has gone protein mad.

Any meeting or seminar on dairy I went to in 2025 held world protein demand up as the thing which would ensure that demand for milk products would continue to grow.

However, over the Christmas I found evidence that things might be going too far.

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Anyone with children will be familiar with Babybel, the little round cheese snacks wrapped in that red wax covering, which ends up forming a waterproof lining at the end of schoolbags everywhere. Well that product has reinvented itself as a high protein product. The red branding has been replaced by a dynamic black and silver look.

When I compared it to the kids’ product, I saw there is indeed more protein in this product – an extra 0.8g per Babybel.

This is probably smart market positioning from the makers of Babybel, but I suspect that gym owners will not thank the company when they find themselves spending a lot of time scraping little wax wrappers off their floors this year.