Most common cheeses are naturally low in potassium. A one-ounce serving of cheddar, Swiss, mozzarella, brie, feta, or goat cheese contains roughly 8 to 46 mg of potassium, well under the 200 mg threshold that kidney dietitians use to define a low-potassium food. If you’re watching your potassium intake, cheese is one of the easier dairy foods to fit into your diet.
Why Cheese Is Naturally Low in Potassium
Potassium is water-soluble. During cheesemaking, the liquid whey separates from the solid curds, and most of the potassium leaves with the whey. What remains in the finished cheese is a concentrated source of protein, fat, calcium, and phosphorus, but relatively little potassium. This is why hard and semi-hard cheeses that have been pressed and aged tend to have the lowest potassium levels per ounce, while soft, wet cheeses like ricotta and cottage cheese retain more.
Lowest Potassium Cheeses
The cheeses with the least potassium per one-ounce (30 g) serving are goat cheese (chèvre), feta, Parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, and Swiss. Here’s how they compare:
- Soft goat cheese (chèvre): 8 mg potassium per ounce
- Parmesan (2 tbsp, grated): 10 mg
- Feta: 19 mg per ounce
- Mozzarella: 23 mg per ounce
- Cheddar: 23 mg per ounce
- Swiss: 23 mg per ounce
- Cream cheese (2 tbsp): 40 mg
- Brie: 43–46 mg per ounce
All of these fall far below the 200 mg cutoff. You could eat two or three ounces and still stay in the low-potassium range, which gives you plenty of room to use cheese as a flavor boost or protein source.
Cheeses With More Potassium
The cheeses that stand out as higher in potassium are the ones that retain more liquid or are served in larger portions. Ricotta is the main one to watch. A half-cup of whole-milk ricotta contains 272 mg of potassium, putting it firmly in the high-potassium category. Part-skim ricotta is a bit lower at 155 mg per half cup, but that’s still several times what you’d get from an ounce of cheddar or feta.
Cottage cheese is another common surprise. A half cup of regular cottage cheese has about 149 mg of potassium, and the no-salt-added version climbs to around 200 mg. These aren’t dangerously high numbers for most people, but they add up if you’re eating cottage cheese as a main protein source at a meal.
Processed cheese products can also be deceptive. A single processed cheese slice has only about 68 mg of potassium, which seems modest, but the USDA data shows that a full cup of diced processed American cheese food hits 288 mg, and processed Swiss reaches 302 mg. The issue isn’t the product itself so much as portion size. Melting processed cheese over nachos or into a sauce means you may use far more than a single slice.
Sodium and Phosphorus Trade-Offs
Choosing cheese based on potassium alone can backfire if you’re also managing sodium or phosphorus, which many people on kidney diets are. Some of the lowest-potassium cheeses come with trade-offs worth knowing about.
Feta has just 19 mg of potassium per ounce but 275 mg of sodium. Processed cheese slices pack 381 mg of sodium in a single slice. On the other end, Swiss cheese is remarkably low in sodium (about 21 mg per ounce) while also being low in potassium (23 mg), making it one of the most kidney-friendly options overall. Low-sodium cheddar is similarly balanced at 6 mg sodium and 32 mg potassium per ounce.
Phosphorus is the other nutrient to consider. Swiss cheese is higher in phosphorus at 170 mg per ounce, while brie is lower at 56 mg. Cream cheese sits at just 32 mg of phosphorus per two-tablespoon serving, which makes it a good option if you need to keep all three minerals in check. Goat cheese offers a strong all-around profile: 8 mg potassium, 138 mg sodium, and 77 mg phosphorus per ounce.
Plant-Based Cheese Alternatives
If you’re considering non-dairy cheese, potassium is essentially a non-issue. A UK study comparing dairy and plant-based cheeses across supermarket products found that non-dairy cheeses contained 0 mg of potassium per serving, compared to 75–110 mg per 100 g for dairy cheese. Manufacturers don’t fortify plant-based cheeses with potassium. The trade-off is that these products also lack the protein, calcium, iodine, and B12 that dairy cheese provides, so they solve the potassium problem while creating potential gaps elsewhere.
Practical Portion Guidance
For most cheeses, a one-ounce serving is about the size of your thumb or a pair of dice. That’s the standard portion used in nutrient databases, and at that size, virtually every cheese besides ricotta qualifies as low potassium. The risk of going over comes from portion creep: shredding half a block of cheddar onto a casserole, spooning out a generous bowl of ricotta for lasagna, or eating cottage cheese by the cupful.
If you’re on a potassium-restricted diet, stick to firm cheeses in one- to two-ounce portions and you’ll typically stay well under 50 mg of potassium. Save ricotta and cottage cheese for smaller servings or occasional use. Reading nutrition labels helps, since potassium is now required on most packaged foods in the United States, but keep in mind that many artisan and deli cheeses won’t have labels, so knowing the general rankings is more practical than relying on packaging alone.
Current clinical guidelines from KDOQI and KDIGO emphasize individualized potassium targets rather than a blanket restriction. The older rule of thumb was 2,000 to 3,000 mg of potassium per day, but the 2024 KDIGO guidelines specifically note that restricting potassium-rich whole foods like fruits and vegetables may actually harm heart health in early-stage kidney disease. Cheese, with its naturally low potassium content, is rarely the food that tips someone over their daily limit.