Kraft Heinz stops serving school-designed Lunchables because of low demand

abcnews.go.com:

Food and beverage manufacturer Kraft Heinz says it's no longer serving the Lunchables meals it created for U.S. schools

Food and beverage manufacturer Kraft Heinz said Tuesday that it no longer is serving the Lunchables meals it created for U.S. schools.

The company introduced the two packaged meals — one starring pizza and the other a turkey, cheddar cheese and cracker plate — at the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year. At the time, Kraft Heinz said the offerings were protein-enriched and contained reduced levels of saturated fat and sodium to meet the requirements of the national free and reduced-price school lunch program.

Nutritionists and advocacy groups were not thrilled by the launch. The Center for Science in the Public Interest called having Lunchables in cafeterias “a highly questionable move for school nutrition” that might confuse families into thinking the versions sold at supermarkets were a healthy option.

The drumbeat quickened in April, when Consumer Reports said its tests showed the school-approved Lunchables contained more sodium than the store varieties. The organization also reported that commercially available Lunchables had more lead compared to ready-made meals made several other companies.

Consumer Reports petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ban Lunchables and similar processed meal kits from schools.

In a statement, Pittsburgh-based Kraft Heinz attributed the decision to pull out of the market served by the National School Lunch Program to a lack of demand. The company described the business impact as “negligible,” saying sales of the school-designed meals “were far less than 1% of overall Lunchables sales” during the last academic year.

“Last year, we brought two NSLP