Daiya Foods is pushing deeper into the frozen dessert aisle with Daiya Cheesecake Bites, a poppable, dairy-free treat now stocked at Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Meijer. The launch marks the brand's latest bid to own the portioned-indulgence occasion in the plant-based freezer set, arriving in Original, Strawberry, and Chocolate varieties at a $8.99 SRP for a 227g bag.
The format — a creamy cheesecake center enrobed in a dark chocolatey coating, delivered straight from the freezer at 100 calories per two-to-three-piece serving — is engineered for the same grab-and-go snacking behavior driving growth across the frozen novelties and bite-sized confection segments. No utensils, no thaw time, and a per-serving calorie count that positions the SKU squarely against permissible-indulgence competitors on the planogram.
The Retail Footprint
With distribution confirmed at Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Meijer, Daiya is threading conventional grocery, natural/specialty, and Midwest regional mass channels simultaneously. The three-banner rollout gives the Cheesecake Bites immediate reach into a meaningful cross-section of the grocery landscape. Daiya's existing network spans more than 25,000 grocery stores across the U.S. and Canada — inclusive of e-commerce partnerships — providing a logistics and shelf-management infrastructure that should support velocity building at these new doors. The SKU is slotted in the frozen dessert aisle, keeping it adjacent to mainstream novelty and ice cream sets rather than isolated in a dedicated plant-based section, a shelf placement strategy that broadens the potential shopper base beyond committed dairy-free buyers.
The Cunningham Play
To support the launch, Daiya has enlisted Detroit Pistons point guard and NBA All-Star Cade Cunningham, who has maintained a dairy-free lifestyle for several years. "Finding dairy-free desserts that genuinely deliver on taste isn't always easy. Daiya Cheesecake Bites do exactly that, which made partnering with the brand feel like a natural fit," Cunningham said. The partnership is strategically pointed: rather than leaning exclusively into health-and-wellness positioning, Daiya is using an elite athlete's personal consumption habits to signal that dairy-free and genuine indulgence are not mutually exclusive — a message calibrated to recruit mainstream frozen dessert shoppers who have no ideological stake in plant-based eating but respond to taste-first credentials.
John Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Daiya, framed the product around the brand's 'Free To Be' platform. "The creamy cheesecake center and rich dark chocolatey coating give you a real dessert experience, and whether you go for Original, Strawberry or Chocolate, two to three pieces are just 100 calories," Kelly said. The platform language — "Free to Indulge" — signals a deliberate pivot toward emotional occasion marketing rather than ingredient-claim-led messaging, a approach increasingly common among plant-based brands seeking to grow beyond their core natural-channel shopper.
For category managers, the Cheesecake Bites SKU represents an incremental TDP opportunity within the frozen dessert set, particularly at banners where the dairy-free freezer section is still consolidating around a handful of proven velocity drivers. Daiya's track record across plant-based frozen foods — including its established pizza and Mac & Cheese lines — gives buyers a scan-data baseline for forecasting turns. The brand's crossover presence in both dairy and freezer aisles also gives it unusual planogram flexibility, a merchandising asset that newer entrants in the better-for-you snacking space typically lack.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
