Where the quark (kvarg in swedish) is, is a question many Swedish people are asking but not getting the answer to. Where is the Quark? Why did the demand skyrocket? How is Quark made? Why is it good for you? If you chose to click this article you must want to know? Your questions, shall be answered.

The Swedish people and the rest of the world are constantly trying to fit more protein into their diets. The protein obsession has driven Sweden into buying something in such large amounts that the demand has led to empty shelves in stores. Signs telling customers that the product is out of stock makes them very unhappy. The product everyone is longing for is, of course, quark. One of those regular unhappy customers is Matilda. 

When Matilda sits down she's carrying a bright smile and tells me how good she is feeling despite the interview taking place a Monday afternoon and her class feeling stress for the upcoming week. When faced with the question ''Have you noticed Quark beeing out of stock at stores?'' she however answers with a grim expression. She has definetly noticed this problem. ''Every time I go to the stores the shelfs are empty", she says. "Also, I work at a local Coop (A Swedish grocery store) and it's always empty there, too. I get to handle their complaints all the time". She talks about how more people has ''found Quark''. People choose to incorporate it into their lives as an easy way of consuming more protein daily. Her reasoning as to why everyone has found Quark now and not before, is because of social media. To her, everyone on social media is training regularly and eating lots of protein to be fit, and that is why everyone has started eating this product for breakfeast and as snack. She also comments on it being ''very yummy''.

But Matilda will probably have to wait until 2028 until the shortage has been solved and the production of Quark is matched to the ever increasing demand. The demand comes from 40% of the Swedish population are consumers. Arla (Swedish dairy producing company) say they are working on a building new Quark factories in Linköping that will increase production significantly. The thing is, the production of Quark is different from the production of yoghurt, different from what many believe. Quark is not a youghurt at all, a closer relative is cottage cheese. To produce quark, sourmilk is coagulated with lactic acid bacteria. During coagulation, the whey is separeted from the solid curds, which are then separeted to become the smooth quark that is, compared to other products, low on calories and high in protein.

Protein is one of the nutrients we need to survive and it is what our body uses for energy and to construct itself. Protein can be made up of 20 different amino acids, 9 of which we need to obtain through our diet. BCAA is an abbreviation for three proteins that are good for building muscle since these proteins stimulate the muscle to make more protein while also helping with muscle breakdown. Quark holds lots of BCAA and by eating only 200g of quark you get more than enough of BCAA to hit the benchmark for these amino acids.

Matilda. Image: Sam Ekman.

Recently there has been a lot of focus on protein in media. In America, the search for protein stems from how the populations diet of highly processed food and refined carbohydrates has caused nutritional problems. The U.S. Deppartment of Health and Human services are trying to fix this problem with dieteary guidelines. American influencers has spread these diet tips to the rest of the world and now influenced people in Sweden to also eat more protein. This has lead to products like quark but also protein bars or protein shakes to become more popular, with quark sales sky rocketing, increasing 36% in just 2025. Which, as Matilda points out, goes back to the social media coverage. "I hope I will not have to wrestle disappointed customers til 2028", says Matilda with a smile.