Bloomington’s Old Home Foods struggling to find a new manufacturer for its cottage cheese

Old Home Foods is still searching for a new production facility for its cottage cheese.

In the meantime, the Bloomington company has settled a federal lawsuit alleging Kemps owes it money for ending a co-packing agreement early.

Terms of the settlement were confidential, but Old Home had asked for at least $50,000 in damages.

St. Louis Park-based Kemps, according to the lawsuit, said over the summer it would stop making Old Home products at its Le Mars, Iowa, plant by Jan. 1, five months before the end of a May co-packing agreement.

Old Home’s sour cream and chip dips were also made at the Iowa facility. However, the company has secured new contract manufacturers for those, said CEO Sandra Kadisak.

Production of Old Home’s peanut butter and yogurt products will also continue as normal, Kadisak said.

But the lawsuit filed in October in U.S. District Court in Minnesota said cottage cheese made up 60% of Old Home’s sales.

Kadisak said she could not talk about the current breakdown in sales because of the settlement.

“We have secured a limited supply of cottage cheese from a different manufacturer,” Kadisak said. “Beginning June of last year [when we received our notice], we conducted a North American search and are finding the industry has a cottage cheese capacity shortage, at least for 2025.”

Kemps’ parent company, Dairy Farmers of America, declined to comment, saying the December settlement terms are confidential, but the matter was resolved amicably.