Food Matters Live Podcast · Food Matters Live

Butter boards and milk manga - the renaissance of dairy

·22 min·1 clip

Over 65% of Japanese students weren't finishing their milk, so Seiki Milk Company printed manga on the bottles.

1. The Food Matters Live Podcast records Grace Binchy's talk on dairy trends at the Food Matters Live event in Dublin in November 2025, under the title "Butter boards and milk manga." 2. Binchy, Industry and International Insight Specialist at Bord Bia, presents trends from the Cultivate platform, while host Anthony Zahra introduces her and frames Ireland's dairy sector as recognised for quality, sustainability and innovation. 3. Her thesis opens with the line "Dairy products are perceived as boring," supported by research from future generations work and the UK Future of Dairy study showing people love dairy but want new news. 4. Cultivate, built with the agency Canvas8, has seven pathways and 40 micro trends; under Purposeful Lives she cites regional storytelling such as Alto Adige hay milk yogurt, Pei Saia smoked butter from Sydney, and Aam Saam condiments founded by Vanessa and Kim Pham. 5. On regenerative agriculture, she notes 47.1 million TikTok views as of September, warns marketers not to assume consumers understand the term, and points to McCain's Roblox game and the Groundswell festival in the UK. 6. Under Support of Society, she reports communal dining momentum of 28 percentage points, links it to post-COVID loneliness, and cites butter and cheese boards, Coca-Cola's returning personalised cans, and a Six Star whey protein tie-up with Kellogg's Fruit Loops. 7. Under Optimal Explorers, she cites 14 points of momentum for life stage nutrition and 33 for function forward, discusses "prejuvenation" among people in their twenties, and covers collagen products from Lifeway and Alex Cooper's Unwell brand. 8. Her protein examples include cottage cheese returning with better branding, Smearcase ice cream with over 40 grams of protein, and Yeo high-protein pizza dough made with Greek yoghurt. 9. The Japan Milk Manga video reports that over 65% of students weren't finishing their milk, while a Beijing brand founded in 1912 sells milk skin yogurt across 200 stores and over 120,000 cups a day in summer. 10. Suited to dairy marketers, product developers and food trend watchers.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Food Matters Live Podcast