If you are in Canada and have hit the grocery store lately, you might have noticed a new addition to the dairy aisle. This new addition to Ontario shelves packs almost twice as much fat compared to the options you’re probably used to grabbing. Even more than full-fat milk. The product is a 6% fat milk. It has caused quite a stir online after a Costco shopper named John Paul Jakub shared his first encounter with the product and subsequent confusion on TikTok.
Jakub was completely caught off guard by the new product. In a video that has racked up over 520K views, he asks the community if this always existed and he just never realized it. He said, “You guys are gonna tell me I’m tripping out, but I know there’s 1% milk. There’s 2% milk. There’s 3% milk. The f**k is 6% milk? You’re gonna tell me that this has been around for longer than today? Cox what the f**k is this?”
A lot of the community was just as baffled as Jakub. One user commented, “I have never seen 6% milk in my life.” Others were confused even before Jakub got to 6%. A TikToker noted, “The f**k is 3% milk. We have 1,2 whole, and skim.” Another asked, “Since when is there 3%?” Some users took a more humorous approach to the discovery. One joked, “can i water it down to 2% and triple my milk investment?” Another asked, “At what percent is it just butter in a bag.”
A product inspired by other countries
According to CP24, this new product comes from Sealtest, which is a brand owned by Agropur. The company launched this 6% fat product in Ontario late last month, and they are currently monitoring its performance to decide if they should expand its availability. Guillaume Bérubé, the public relations director at Agropur, explained that there has been a growing interest in higher fat options among their customers.
Interestingly, this move isn’t happening in a vacuum. Per the outlet, the Indian dairy company Amul has offered a six per cent milk option for a long time. As they have expanded into the North American market, their product has started appearing in some Canadian stores.
@johnpauljakub 6%?????? #wtf 6% #milk #mandelaeffect #comedy
♬ оригінальний звук – Classical Music
Anika Dhalla, a Hamilton-based registered dietitian, noted that this type of milk is a staple for many people, per CP24. “Being an Indian person, we are the milk people. We love milk,” she said. “I definitely have patients who love milk as well just because I do work with a lot of South Asians. It’s a big part of the diet.” She explains that richer milk products are excellent for making tastier yogurt, ricotta cheese, paneer, and korma.
While the culinary uses are clear, the health implications are reportedly a bit more complicated. “It’s about preference,” Dhalla said. “If someone’s choosing higher fat, I usually question why.” She warns that drinking higher fat milk means consuming more saturated fat, which could potentially increase the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
“Heart disease is the number one thing in Canada that kills people,” Dhalla said. “It’s the number one thing that kills women, it’s the number one thing that kills men, the number one thing that kills all people. So why go for something that has higher saturated fat?”
CP24 noted that this product introduction sits within a larger cultural shift in the continent. Followers of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda have been vocal about their support for full-fat milk. In fact, a subset of MAHA, featuring Christian influencers, has been pushing a biblical eating diet, featuring raw dairy products.
In response, President Trump has reportedly reintroduced 2% and whole milk back into the school lunch program. However, Health Canada maintains its recommendation for lower-fat options for most people. They do recommend whole milk for children under 24 months old.
If you’re curious about how this product, with more fat than whole milk, is made, Douglas Goff, a professor emeritus of food science at the University of Guelph, explained the process. Per CP24, milk naturally comes out of the udder at around 4% fat. In a processing plant, it’s separated into skim milk and cream, which is about 40% fat. To create a specific percentage, like 6%, the plant adjusts how much cream is added back into the skim milk.
It’s a pretty straightforward process. However, for those who prioritize protein over fat, you might have to choose your battle in the dairy aisle. Bérubé reportedly noted that there is a limit to how much protein can exist in a single serving of high-fat milk. So you’ll have to decide what matters most to your diet.
