A snack dreamed up for Goldstein's three Cleveland-area kids after his two oldest sons had gluten allergies and he assumed his youngest did too, though the youngest had not been tested, is about to land on Aldi shelves across the country. Whoa Dough, the Northeast Ohio company founded by Todd Goldstein, is rolling out its new snackable cookie dough bites at Aldi stores nationwide starting October 21, bringing chocolate chip and brownie batter flavors to the discount grocer's famously fast-moving specialty aisle.
Goldstein, whose sons are ages 11, 9 and 6, started the company after his family's own struggles with gluten sensitivity, according to Cleveland.com. He called the Aldi launch exciting and important, per the same report, a milestone for a brand that started as a way to give his own kids a safe treat. Aldi operates more than 2,700 stores across more than 40 states, including 179 locations in Ohio, giving the hometown brand a dramatically wider footprint than its original local shelf space.
From Family Fix to National Shelf Space
The new product marks a shift from Whoa Dough's earlier shelf-stable cookie dough bars toward snack-sized bites sold in two-count packs. The company developed refrigerator-ready snack packs with portability in mind. The bites are safe to eat raw and will also be sold in a third flavor, sugar cookie, through Whoa Dough's own website, even though Aldi is only carrying chocolate chip and brownie batter to start.
Every version is made without gluten, dairy, eggs, soy or nuts, and the products are vegan and Non-GMO Project Verified, addressing a wide swath of common childhood allergens in one bite. That allergen-free formula traces back to the company's early days testing recipes with local Cleveland shoppers: before its 2020 national launch, Whoa Dough went through 19 recipe reformulations ahead of a 2019 soft launch in Cleveland grocery stores, according to FreshWater Cleveland. Goldstein refined the recipe based on community feedback to keep it safe without sacrificing texture, the outlet reported.
Local Retail Availability
Whoa Dough has sold products through local retailers and online. The snackable bites are now available locally at Luna Bakery & Café, Lake Road Market in Rocky River, Nature's Oasis in Lakewood, Miles Market in Solon, the Cleveland Clinic main campus and the Summa Health cafeteria.
The brand's reach has grown beyond neighborhood markets in recent years. The company brought production back to Northeast Ohio and had an office at LaunchHouse in Highland Heights, where Goldstein co-founded the startup incubator in 2008.
Corporate Backing and a Delivery-App Deal
More recently, the company struck a very different kind of partnership: in May 2026, Whoa Dough agreed to manufacture and power a private-label edible cookie dough line for quick-commerce delivery platform Gopuff, as reported by NOSH.com. Gopuff operates its own micro-fulfillment centers in the U.S. and U.K., putting Whoa Dough's dough within reach of app-based delivery as well as store shelves.
For now, Goldstein says the company's focus stays on its current snack lineup, though he has said other Whoa Dough products might be developed in 2028 or 2029.
