Morton Grove-based Lifeway Foods, the leading U.S. supplier of Kefir, will purchase assets of New Jersey-based Fruit Juice Inc. The company makes First Juice, the first organic fruit and vegetable drink designed for children.

First Juice, currently sold in about 300 locations including Babies R Us, Whole Foods and Ralphs posted $1.7 million in sales for 2009. Flavors include banana-carrot, blueberry-purple carrot and peach-purple carrot. Lifeway already has a children’s beverage, ProBugs, a line of organic Kefir for children.

“The market for healthy children’s beverages and other foods that promote healthy children’s eating habits is clearly growing,” said Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods. “Adding First Juice to our product portfolio strengthens our offerings in this increasingly important market space, provides cross-marketing and channel expansion opportunities, and gives us a strong new platform for building revenues.”

Lifeway’s acquisition of First Juice assets, for $220,000, is expected to close Oct. 4.