The Cottage Cheese Brand You Should Avoid At All Costs

It's not easy to hate on a Trader Joe's product. The brand creates many masterpieces, from its crunchy okra to its salsa verde. But there are some instances in which TJ's misses the mark: In this case, it's organic, low-fat cottage cheese.

Protein-packed, creamy, and curdy, cottage cheese can be amazingly versatile, pairing well with fruit, toasted bread, eggs, and nearly everything under the sun. That being said, Tasting Table's ranking of eight cottage cheese brands found that while Breakstone's cottage cheese was an obvious winner, Trader Joe's organic low-fat variety is better tossed away. 

Thin and runny with few actual curds — which is kind of the point of a good cottage cheese — the stuff is lackluster, sad, and will make you wish you'd just bought a pint of TJ's cookie butter ice cream instead. The product isn't listed on the Trader Joe's website, and availability may vary by location, but we suggest skipping out on this one.

We're not entirely sure why this particular product falls so far behind others. Sure, this variety of Trader Joe's cottage cheese-flavored water is low-fat, which can often lead to a thinner mixture that's just not as rich. Think of skim or 1% milk compared to whole milk. But we're not tolerating that excuse. After all, Breakstone's low-fat cottage cheese has 2% milk fat — just like the Trader Joe's variety — and lends itself to a creamy, rich texture. Additionally, Good Culture has a variety with 2% milk fat that tastes like pure luxury.

Speaking of cultures, this Trader Joe's product likely doesn't have any: The brand's organic, low-fat cottage cheese undergoes pasteurization. While this process can be beneficial in killing harmful bacteria, it can also remove probiotics — the beneficial bacteria found in kimchi and miso that fortify gut health and aid your immune system. So next time you're on the hunt for a cheesy fix, opt for a brand that includes live cultures, known as probiotics, and skip the Trader Joe's dairy aisle.