How much potassium is in cottage cheese?

Cottage cheese is a protein standout, but potassium is one of the few places it comes up short. A 1/2-cup serving (113 g) carries only about 97 mg of potassium, which is roughly 2% of the 4,700 mg Daily Value and about 0.2× the potassium of a medium banana (~422 mg). On a per-100 g basis that’s just 86 mg. Even a full cup tops out near 194 mg — less than half a banana. So while cottage cheese earns its place for protein, it sits firmly in the low-potassium column, and there’s a second number on the label that matters more here than potassium does.

Less potassium than the milk it came from

Cottage cheese is made by curdling milk and draining off the liquid whey, and a good deal of milk’s potassium leaves with that liquid. The result is a food that concentrates protein but sheds potassium: a cup of milk carries around 350–380 mg, plain yogurt is in a similar range, but a cup of cottage cheese lands near 194 mg. So among dairy choices, cottage cheese is one of the weaker potassium picks even though it’s one of the strongest protein picks. If potassium is your goal, milk or yogurt does more, and fruit, vegetables, and beans do far more still — a baked potato alone clears 900 mg. Cottage cheese’s job is protein; treat the potassium as a rounding error.

The number that actually matters: sodium

Here’s the real story on the label, and it isn’t potassium — it’s sodium. Cottage cheese is salted during production, and the USDA reference sits at about 406 mg of sodium per 100 g, several times its ~86 mg of potassium. That low potassium-to-sodium ratio is exactly the opposite of what blood-pressure-friendly patterns like DASH are built around, which prize high potassium against low sodium. Potassium is the blood-pressure mineral — it counterbalances sodium and helps relax blood-vessel walls — so a food that’s low in it and high in salt is one to be aware of if blood pressure is on your mind. The practical fixes are real: brands vary widely, and a number are sold no-salt-added, which swing the ratio back toward favorable. The label is the final word. (For context, not alarm: people with kidney disease are sometimes advised to limit potassium; for everyone else here, sodium is the line worth reading. This is general information, not medical advice.)

For a higher-potassium dairy on the same lane, see potassium in Greek yogurt.