The Product
Daiya Foods is extending its frozen dessert line with Cheesecake Bites, a poppable, freezer-ready format featuring a dairy-free creamy cheesecake center enrobed in a dark chocolatey coating. The SKU launches in three varieties — Original, Strawberry and Chocolate — in 227g single-flavor bags at a suggested retail price of $8.99, positioning the item squarely in the premium frozen dessert tier. At 100 calories per serving of two to three pieces, the product is engineered around portioned indulgence, one of the faster-moving briefs in frozen better-for-you.
Distribution opens at Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market and Meijer — a retail footprint that, combined with Daiya's existing presence, gives the brand access to more than 25,000 grocery doors across the U.S. and Canada. The Cheesecake Bites are slotted in the frozen dessert aisle, adjacent to the company's existing frozen cheesecake lineup, which has been a meaningful growth driver since Daiya moved beyond its foundational cheese-format business.
The Cunningham Partnership
To anchor the launch, Daiya has signed NBA All-Star Cade Cunningham as a brand partner — a move that signals an intentional push beyond the core plant-based consumer into mainstream athletic and performance-lifestyle audiences. Cunningham, who has followed a dairy-free diet for years, fits the brief without requiring product repositioning. John Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Daiya, noted that Cunningham "lives dairy-free himself, but like the consumers we want to reach, he refuses to compromise on taste" — a message consistent with Daiya's broader 'Free To Be' platform and its 'Free to Indulge' sub-positioning.
Celebrity and athlete partnerships in the plant-based segment have become a standard traffic-driving mechanism as the category matures and competes harder for freezer-aisle facings. For retail buyers, athlete endorsements tied to specific, measurable lifestyle credentials — rather than broad wellness claims — tend to carry more credibility with category managers evaluating promotional support.
Category Context
The poppable frozen dessert format has gained shelf momentum as operators and retailers respond to consumer demand for individually portioned, grab-and-go treats that fit snacking occasions without requiring thawing or preparation. For foodservice distributors and convenience-format operators, the freezer-to-mouth format also raises questions about potential away-from-home placement — a channel Daiya has not explicitly addressed in this launch but one worth tracking given the brand's scale.
Daiya's plant-based dairy alternatives, including shreds, slices, cream cheese-style spreads and Mac & Cheese, are already embedded in foodservice supply chains and on menus at operators looking to serve dairy-free guests without maintaining separate prep workflows. The Cheesecake Bites, in their current retail format, extend that brand equity into frozen snacking — a segment where dairy-free options remain underdeveloped relative to conventional competitors. As plant-based frozen dessert continues to consolidate around brands with proven retail velocity, Daiya's multi-SKU frozen strategy positions it as a category anchor rather than a single-item player. For procurement teams at retail foodservice and grocery operators, the launch represents another signal that portioned, attribute-led indulgence is a viable shelf bet heading into 2027 planning cycles.
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.
