The cheese market’s penetration rate continues to rise, with sub-categories showing differentiated trends. The demand for snacks is growing, but cheese spread faces the challenge of high user stickiness and low penetration. Cheese for baking or cooking still adheres to family consumption and has not yet achieved cross-scenario popularity.
Infants and children show pronounced differences in their consumption of snack cheese. Brands need to refine their product positioning to meet parents’ expectations for cheese consumption for children of different age groups.
Adult snack cheese has not yet cemented its lead in the market, and consumption behaviour shows differentiation driven by household structure. Brands can develop nutritious cheese for families suitable for outdoor activities for consumers with children and create late-night comfort flavours for singles.
To address dining needs, brands can use bread pairing as an effective entry point for cheese spread trials, then use the combination of pasta and cheese to expand into home cooking, and boost cheese culinary use by enhancing the quality of baked goods as the message.
China’s cheese market is strategically transitioning from a focus on children’s cheese to a more diversified user base. To succeed, brands need to overcome the bottleneck in the children’s segment by designing age-specific products, while simultaneously developing adult snacks and meal accompaniments and cultivating user habits through a scenario-based approach.
Evelyn Shen, Associate Research Analyst, China
Market Definitions
This report examines the development trends of the cheese retail market in China and consumer habits and interests in cheese consumption and provides references for business marketing and product innovation.
‘Cheese’ in this report refers to cheese as defined by the National Food Safety Standard GB5420–2021 and processed cheese and cheese products defined by GB25192–2022. The market size involved covers packaged cheese products across all retail channels, including direct sales.
Mintel classified cheese consumers based on their consumption frequency:
- Consumers who eat packaged bakery foods once a day or more are considered high-frequency consumers
- Consumers who consume cheese 1-6 times a week are considered medium-frequency consumers
- Those who consume 2-3 times a month are low-frequency consumers
- Those who consume once a month or less are occasional consumers
- Those who have not consumed any in the last six months are non-consumers
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- Definitions
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Executive summary
- What you need to know
- Market opportunity 1: new narrative for precision age-segmentation for children’s cheese
- Graph 1: frequency of consumption of snack cheese by child(ren), by age of child(ren) in household, 2025
- Market opportunity 2: adult snack cheese needs scenario breakthrough
- Graph 2: frequency of snack cheese consumption, 2025
- Market opportunity 3: train the Chinese palate and weave meal accompaniment cheese into the mainstream
- Graph 3: frequency of meal accompaniment cheese consumption, 2025
- What we think
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The market
- Market factors
- China’s macroeconomic indicators (January-October 2025)
- China’s Dairy Industry Advancing Towards 2030 injected new momentum into the cheese market
- The potential of the children’s market is being tested, and the cheese industry should continue to diversify its consumer groups
- Graph 4: birth rate, 2005-24
- Graph 5: online children’s cheese sales trend, November 2024-October 2025
- Cheese transcends traditional perceptions; scenario expansion creates new opportunities for the category
- Market size and forecast
- Key market indicators
- Consumer acceptance of cheese has risen, and the market downturn has narrowed
- Graph 6: best- and worst-case forecast of retail value of cheese, 2020-30
- Consumer acceptance of cheese has risen, and the market downturn has narrowed
- Graph 7: best- and worst-case forecast of retail volume of cheese, 2020-30
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The consumer
- Summary
- Overview of cheese consumption
- Overall penetration of cheese increased
- Graph 8: cheese consumption frequency (NET) difference, 2024 vs 2025
- The demand for snack cheese continues to expand
- Graph 9: frequency of snack cheese consumption, 2025
- Cheese spreads encounter a penetration bottleneck
- Graph 10: frequency of spreadable cheese consumption, by age, 2025
- Cheese for baking or cooking is a family favourite
- Graph 11: frequency of baking/culinary cheese consumption, by age and family structure, 2025
- Milk source remains the primary purchasing factor but the level of importance has declined
- Increased importance is placed on shelf life with diversified eating methods gaining attention
- Graph 12: cheese purchase factor, 2021 vs 2025
- Increased importance is placed on shelf life with diversified eating methods gaining attention
- The breakthrough strategies for children’s cheese: from general applicability to scientific age segmentation
- Children’s snack cheese remains the mainstay of China’s cheese market
- Children’s snack cheese needs to transition from ‘suitable for children’ to ‘precisely age-segmented’
- Graph 13: frequency of consumption of snack cheese by child(ren), by age of child(ren) in household and family structure, 2025
- Safety is the pillar of snack cheese for infants and toddlers, while tastiness is more eagerly anticipated by parents of older children
- Graph 14: motivation for consuming children’s snack cheese, by age of children in household, 2025
- Graph 15: purchase factors for snack cheese by consumers whose children have eaten it, by age of children in household, 2025
- Emphasise organic and quality to win the favour of infant and toddler parents with nutrition and safety
- Breaking the age ceiling for children’s snack cheese
- Graph 16: consumption of snack cheese by families with children, by age of children in household, 2025
- Capture the attention of preschool children with various ways to eat cheese
- Balance taste and functional nutrition to create new healthy options for school-age children
- Lining up with occasions for cheese snacks for adults: from indoor and outdoor family consumption to late-night self-indulgence
- A signature occasion for cheese consumption has yet to emerge
- No identifiable main scene for snack cheese
- Graph 17: cheese vs snacks consumption occasions, by category, 2025
- Snack cheese is consumed by families, both indoors and outdoors
- Graph 18: consumption occasions for packaged cheese, by family structure, 2025
- Fill up on energy during family outdoor activities with nutritious cheese
- Graph 19: trigger of snack cheese for myself, by family structure, 2025
- ‘Late night leisure time alone’ is favoured by multi-occasion cheese consumers
- Graph 20: cheese consumption occasion ranking, the number of occasions chosen, 2025
- Singles pay more attention to indulging themselves late at night and sharing food at work
- Graph 21: consumption occasions for packaged cheese, by family structure, 2025
- Break the ground in late-night snack cheese consumption with flavour and comfort
- Graph 22: trigger of snack cheese for myself, by family structure, 2025
- Advance the consumption of meal accompaniment cheese: from pairing with bread to integrating into Western cuisine
- Homemade bakery pastries with cheese are the most popular among people
- How to grab new consumers: feature the bread and cheese combo to enter the meal accompaniment market
- Graph 23: cheese pairing method of interest, by consumption frequency, 2025
- Position cheese as bread’s best friend using bundles
- Graph 24: cheese purchase factors, by pairing method of interest, 2025
- From Western bakery to Chinese carbs, expand the possibilities for cheese pairings
- Cheese spreads can further inspire new demands in baking and cooking
- Graph 25: frequency of having baking/cooking cheese, by frequency of having cheese spreads, 2025
- Cheese consumption is strongly associated with Western cuisine, and baking leans more towards a social experience
- Graph 26: penetration rate of cooking and baking activities, by frequency of eating baking/cooking cheese, 2025
- Enhance the convenience of cooking Western-style main courses and lower the trial cost of the bakery experience
- Pasta and cheese can serve as an anchor point for cheese entering Chinese home kitchens
- Graph 27: frequently home-cooked Western dishes, by consumption frequency of baking/cooking cheese, 2025
- Starting with urum, expand the possibilities of Chinese cuisine-cheese fusion
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New product trends
- The structure of cheese consumption is changing – leading brands have a clear advantage
- Graph 28: market share of leading companies in new cheese products, 2020-25
- Graph 29: market share of own brands in new cheese products, 2020-25
- New retail brands are actively promoting cheese to become a staple on family tables
- The naturalness concept energises the cheese market
- Graph 30: market share of new cheese product claims, 2020-25
- No longer ‘plain’: cheese flavours are diversifying
- Graph 31: flavour landscape for cheese – selected flavour types, 2025
- The development of meal accompaniment scenarios is in sync with the diversification of flavours
- Increased innovation in ambient products offers more choices for out-of-home scenarios
- Graph 32: share of storage methods in new cheese products, 2022-25
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Appendix – market size and forecast, research methodology and abbreviations
- Market size and forecast
- Methodology: consumer survey
- Methodology: TURF analysis
- Methodology: Mintel Flavours Landscape interpretation
- Abbreviations
- Co-author
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