The largest food firm in the world, which supplies major grocers with Stouffer’s meals and DiGiorno pizza, claimed to have created new items with more protein, iron, and calcium for those on the massively popular GLP-1 agonists, which suppress hunger.
The meals under the new Vital Pursuit brand will be marketed by Nestle USA’s meal division president, Tom Moe, as “food solutions” for individuals who wish to supplement their medication intake with “the right nutrition – high protein, good fiber, the right minerals,” such as potassium and vitamin C.
The goods, which will be available in supermarkets in October, are priced at $4.99 and below, making them somewhat more costly than the $4.79 DiGiorno four cheese personal pan pizza that Target sells.
Last year, Nestle, whose most well-known products include KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe coffee, began developing companion items for the GLP-1 medications.
“We worked on this very quickly,” Moe remarked.
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In October, Nestle CEO Mark Schneider stated that the business was “carefully” observing if increased drug usage could reduce consumer demand for the company’s food goods. At the time, he added, Nestle was developing “companion products” that could help prevent or lessen the “loss of lean muscle mass” that medication users experience.
Some investors have been worried that food companies will lose sales due to the hunger-suppressing drugs. But executives at companies like Nestle and Conagra see the medications presenting a new opportunity to pitch products such as beef jerky, popcorn and frozen meals. Mondelez executives have said their snack bars fit perfectly into the diet of a GLP-1 patient.
Roughly one in eight U.S. adults have taken the GLP-1 drugs, but Goldman Sachs estimates that 10 million to 70 million U.S. consumers could be taking them in the next four years.
According to Moe, in order to create the meals, Nestle talked with drug users and will soon be providing samples. According to him, the Swiss-based business originally presented the brand to Walmart before moving on to other major stores like Kroger and Target.