Van’s International Foods Inc., a Vernon company known for its organic frozen waffles, is being acquired by an investment fund seeking to profit from the growing popularity of natural foods, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Healthy Food Holdings of Boulder, Colo., is buying Van’s from KCA Partners, a San Francisco private equity firm that acquired the waffle maker in January 2000. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Van’s, which will have sales this year of about $25 million, accounts for close to half of the market for all-natural frozen waffles with varieties such as “Wheat Free Blueberry,” “Hearty Oats” and “Gourmet Multi-Grain.”

With an annual growth rate of 20% since 1997, natural and organic products are the fastest-growing segment of the food industry, which typically grows 3% to 4% annually, said Dennis Krause, senior vice president of GE Commercial Finance.

Read the full L.A. Times story

.(registration required)