The most consumed dairy products in the USA

This table shows the most consumed dairy products in America.

Data are for the year 2010 and are taken from the USDA ERS Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System and the Agricultural Research Service National Agricultural Library.

The figures are adjusted to prevent double counting. Milk used to create foods in other categories like cheese, butter, etc. is not counted under the “fluid milk and cream” category. The “fluid milk and cream” category includes milk of all fat percentages, buttermilk, yogurt, cream, sour cream and eggnog. “Frozen dairy products” includes ice cream, sherbet and frozen yogurt.

The availability figure is measured in milk-equivalent pounds. This statistic measures the amount of fluid milk needed to create the total amount of food in that category. For example, the availability of cottage cheese is 2.33 milk-equivalent pounds. This means that it takes 2.33 pounds of liquid milk to create the quantity of cottage cheese available to each person in the United States. Milk-equivalent pounds are calculated based on the quantity of milkfat in each dairy product.

Calorie availability is calculated based on milk-equivalent pounds, using the calorie content of whole milk. This statistic may overestimate the calorie availability of certain products.

For more information on what these numbers mean, or to download these tables in a different format, please visit the most consumed foods page.

The most consumed dairy products in America

Food product
Availability (lb per capita) (milk-equivalent weight)
Availability (kcal per capita) (from milk-equivalent calories)
Fluid milk and cream203.65137640
Cheese33.2122442
Frozen dairy products21.1714305
Evaporate and condensed milk7.034754
Butter4.873288
Dried dairy products (excluding whey)3.722514
Cottage cheese2.331571
Dried whey1.29871
 The most consumed dairy products in the USA
About Lena Zegher

Hi! I blog about food and health for Supplement SOS. I like green vegetables, long walks on the beach and triple-blind placebo-controlled intervention studies with large sample sizes. Liked this post? Follow on Google+, Twitter or via RSS or email me!.