The Launch
Daiya Foods is entering the portioned frozen dessert segment with Cheesecake Bites — a freezer-ready product featuring a creamy cheesecake center dipped in dark chocolatey coating, available in Original, Strawberry, and Chocolate. The 227g bags retail for $8.99 and clock in at 100 calories per serving of 2–3 bites. Distribution is live now at Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Meijer nationwide.
The launch pairs a functional product claim — dairy-free, portion-controlled, no-prep — with an athlete endorsement that carries genuine category credibility. NBA All-Star Cade Cunningham has followed a dairy-free diet for years, a biographical detail that anchors the partnership in lifestyle authenticity rather than celebrity adjacency. "Finding dairy-free desserts that genuinely deliver on taste isn't always easy," Cunningham said. "Daiya Cheesecake Bites do exactly that." John Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Daiya, framed the partnership around shared values: Cunningham "lives dairy-free himself, but like the consumers we want to reach, he refuses to compromise on taste."
Retail Positioning
For grocery buyers and foodservice procurement teams tracking the plant-based freezer aisle, the Cheesecake Bites SKU signals a deliberate pivot toward indulgence-first positioning rather than the health-centric framing that dominated plant-based dairy launches earlier this decade. The product sits in the frozen dessert aisle — not the specialty or natural-foods section — a shelf placement choice that puts it in direct competition with mainstream impulse buys rather than niche alternatives. At $8.99 for a multi-serving bag, the price point sits above conventional frozen novelties but within the premium tier that Daiya and its peers have conditioned retail buyers to accept.
Daiya's existing footprint of more than 25,000 U.S. and Canadian grocery doors — alongside international presence in Asia, Europe, and Latin America — gives this launch meaningful immediate reach without requiring the brand-building runway that new plant-based entrants face. The Cheesecake Bites extend a cheese-forward food strategy the company has built since 2008, now spanning pizza, Mac & Cheese, frozen cheesecake, and bite-format desserts.
What Operators Should Watch
For operators and buyers reading brand launch signals, the Cunningham partnership is a data point worth flagging. Athlete-driven dairy-free endorsements are becoming a distinct subcategory within plant-based growth marketing, moving away from environmental messaging and toward performance and lifestyle positioning. That shift has real implications for how suppliers pitch buyers, how distributors segment their frozen set, and how operators frame plant-based menu additions to guests who are not ideologically committed to veganism but are dairy-sensitive or simply calorie-aware.
The 100-calorie-per-serving claim in a poppable, freezer-to-mouth format also tracks with the broader trend toward portioned snack desserts gaining traction in both retail and hospitality grab-and-go channels. Operators running hotel minibar programs, airline lounges, or café dessert cases should watch whether Daiya pursues a foodservice extension of this SKU — the format translates cleanly to single-serve packaging.
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.
