Kraft Heinz Bets on Plant-Based Dessert Demand with Jell-O Oat Milk Chocolate Pudding

Kraft Heinz has launched the first ready-to-eat vegan offering under its iconic Jell-O brand, a dairy-free version of its chocolate pudding.

Packaged food giant Kraft Heinz is for the first time diving into plant-based desserts, debuting an oat milk chocolate pudding as part of the Jell-O brand.

The company says it is hoping to cater to Americans with a milk allergy or lactose intolerance, as well as the four in five parents who have expressed interest in buying non-dairy desserts for their kids, arguing that current options on the market are limited and fall short on taste and texture.

It’s betting on oat milk – the fastest-growing plant-based alternative in the US – to address those shortcomings and veganise its signature chocolate pudding cups, which were first released nearly a century ago in the 1930s.

The new SKU, which comes as a 14oz pack of four, is rolling out at retailers nationwide, at a price of $3.99. In contrast, the dairy-based version retails for as low as $3.69 per 15.5oz pack.

Leveraging oat milk’s ‘skyrocketing’ popularity

Best known for its gelatin-based desserts, Jell-O is finally foraying into animal-free products. While most of its pudding mixes are dairy-free, they’re meant to be mixed with milk at home.

Choosing chocolate as the first non-dairy pudding flavour was a strategic decision – it’s an homage to the range’s foremost and most well-known flavour. It is banking on the creamy consistency and mild flavour of gluten-free oat milk to recreate the signature taste and texture in a plant-based format.

According to Kraft Heinz, oat milk is “skyrocketing in popularity for desserts” thanks to these attributes, making it “the perfect solution” for the Jell-O pudding cups.

Aside from oat milk, the ready-to-eat product contains sugar, cornstarch, canola oil, alkalised cocoa powder, faba bean protein, and some flavourings, emulsifiers and stabilisers.

Each 99g serving contains 3.5g of fat (0.5g of which is saturated), 15g of added sugar – with the caveat that the FDA’s recent changes mandate the labelling of natural sugars in oats as added – 1g of fibre, and 2g of protein. In contrast, the original Jell-O chocolate pudding cups have 1.5g of fat (all saturated), 17g of added sugar, and the same amount of protein and fibre.

“As our fans’ diets and preferences change, we’re evolving our portfolio alongside them,” said Lauren Gumbiner, associate director of marketing desserts at Kraft Heinz. “Our chocolate pudding is a timeless classic, and now, thanks to our lactose-free and vegan oat milk version, we’re excited to give more families the opportunity to enjoy it.”

A vote of confidence for the non-dairy category

In the US, milk is amongst the most common food allergies in kids, affecting 1.9 million children each year. Meanwhile, over 30% of Americans suffer from lactose intolerance – and that number is especially high among people of colour, rising to 65% of Hispanic Americans, 75% of Black Americans, 90% of Asian Americans, and 95% of Native Americans.

The prevalance of lactose intolerance has pushed many big companies to rethink their non-dairy policies, with coffee chains like Starbucks and Dunkin’ removing the plant-based milk surcharge after facing class-action lawsuits. Even lawmakers have joined forces on a bipartisan bill that would make alternatives like soy and almond milk more accessible in school meals.

Meanwhile, pudding is one of America’s favourite desserts, consumed by over 40% of the population (a share that continues to grow each year), according to data cited by Kraft Heinz.

As parents showcase an interest in non-dairy options and companies become more allergy-friendly, the opportunity for plant-based desserts is ripe. These products have enjoyed a steady growth in recent years, with dollar sales up by 23% between 2021 and 2023.

And one research firm values that the global market for vegan desserts at $3.7B this year, predicting an annual growth of 8.5% to reach $8.5B in a decade’s time. This is what Kraft Heinz is banking on with the Jell-O oat milk pudding cups.

The food leader’s move is a ringing endorsement of the non-dairy category in the US. The discourse around ultra-processed foods and resurgence of raw milk has led to a 6% decline in plant-based milk consumption in the US, versus a 2% hike in cow’s milk last year. For one of the country’s largest food producers to launch a non-dairy version of a legacy product speaks volumes of the market’s potential.

It’s not the first classic Kraft Heinz has ‘veganised’ of late. Through its joint venture with Chilean food tech unicorn NotCo – called The Kraft Heinz Not Company – it has launched dairy-free versions of Kraft Singles and its signature mac and cheese. Outside the dairy world, the label has introduced egg-free mayonnaise and plant-based Oscar Mayer hot dogs too.