The interesting point is that this has not weakened whey’s position. If anything, it has reinforced it. Whey still sets the benchmark for amino acid quality, leucine content, digestibility, functionality and consumer recognition.
The challenge is no longer to find “the next whey” but to decide where whey is essential and where a blend or alternative can deliver the required result at a better cost or with a different consumer story.
Demand outpacing production, alternatives emerging
GIRACT estimated European whey protein demand at around 256,500 tons in 2024. Functional foods accounted for about 66,000 tons, with demand forecast to reach around 75,400 tons by 2029 at the time. That is significant when sports nutrition is now competing with high-protein dairy, medical nutrition, healthy aging and weight-management products for the same raw material streams.
The supply pressure is visible across the industry. Most manufacturers admitted in 2026 that global whey demand was still outpacing production despite new capacity and that industry players were increasingly looking at hybrid protein strategies to manage cost and availability. The market is therefore becoming less about whey versus alternatives and more about how to use each protein where it makes most sense.
Clear protein is one of the clearest examples.
Clear whey has already changed the way protein can be consumed. Instead of another creamy shake, it creates a lighter, fruit-flavored drink closer to a sports beverage or flavored water, often in sugar-free, low-calorie RTD formats.
What is changing now is that clarity is no longer a dairy-only proposition. In 2026, several companies launched hydrolyzed clear plant protein designed to tackle familiar plant-protein issues such as grittiness, off-notes and opacity. Overall, clear pea, rice and even yeast proteins are also being developed for refreshment-style drinks.
That could be important for European formulators. GIRACT forecasted pea protein demand in European functional foods to grow from 19,300 tons in 2024 to 27,100 tons in 2029. The opportunity is no longer simply vegan protein powder; improved solubility and flavor are allowing plant proteins into formats where they previously struggled.
Broadening positioning and stretching whey
Another development worth watching is partial substitution rather than full replacement.
Collagen is a good example. It should not be presented as nutritionally equivalent to whey for muscle protein synthesis. Its amino acid profile is different, but it can make sense alongside whey, especially when a product also wants to address mobility, connective tissue, beauty or healthy aging.
Commercially, that can be attractive. A whey-collagen system can reduce the amount of whey required while broadening the finished product’s positioning. GIRACT’s European retail research has already identified a clear protein product providing 10 g of whey protein isolate and 10 g of collagen peptides per serving.
Yeast protein is at an earlier stage, but it deserves attention for the same reason, and several of the manufacturers have committed to increase capacities. Within functional foods, the forecast growth rate is expected to be above 10% per year.
The volumes are small, but the technology is moving quickly. Several companies positioned yeast protein for high-protein beverages in 2026, while their own research had explored combinations of yeast and whey protein. These supplier studies should not be treated as independent consensus, but they show where formulation work is heading: using yeast not necessarily to remove whey but to stretch it.
Protein recovery and supply diversification
Europe also has an interesting circular-economy angle. Most yeast extract producers have developed a process to recover protein, and beta-glucan from the same base material and are targeting applications including sports nutrition and functional foods. Fermentation-derived protein can therefore provide a new supply stream that is not tied directly to milk availability.
Milk protein should not be overlooked either. When whey gets expensive, the obvious alternative is not always plant protein. Milk protein concentrate, milk protein isolate and micellar casein can offer useful nutritional and functional properties while keeping a dairy positioning.
These proteins can be relevant in shakes, bars, meal replacements and sustained-protein concepts where the rapid absorption profile of whey isolate is not essential. Casein’s slower digestion, for example, gives it a natural role in evening and satiety products.
Further ahead, precision fermentation is starting to look less like a sustainability experiment and more like a supply-diversification technology.
There was a significant increase in the alternative-protein investment scene in 2026 compared to the previous year, with fermentation driving much of the growth. The number of deals also fell, suggesting investors are becoming more selective and concentrating capital on technologies with a clearer path to scale.
None of this means fermentation-derived whey will solve the current shortage quickly. Cost, regulation, scale and consumer acceptance remain real questions. But scarcity gives the technology a clearer business case than it had a few years ago.
The evolving consumer and the formulation opportunities
The consumer side is changing at the same time. Sports nutrition is becoming active nutrition. Protein products are now being developed not only for athletes but also for older consumers, recreational exercisers and weight-management users. The recurring topics of energy, recovery, healthy aging are also growing as increasingly important themes.
For brands, this broadens the opportunity but also makes formulation more complicated. Protein quantity alone is no longer enough. Taste, format, protein quality, claims, price and supply resilience all have to work together, and it is very tough.
Whey is unlikely to lose its position at the center of European sports nutrition. What will change is how carefully it is used. Clear plant proteins will take some applications. Collagen and yeast can become useful partners in blends. Milk proteins may gain more attention, and precision fermentation could eventually add another source of high-quality dairy proteins.
