{"id":473650,"date":"2025-12-26T21:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T21:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/473650\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T21:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T21:57:14","slug":"weight-loss-pill-approval-set-to-reshape-food-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/473650\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight-loss pill approval set to reshape food products"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"REUTERS\/JEENAH<\/p>\n

REUTERS\/JEENAH MOON\/FILE PHOTO<\/p>\n

People shop at Zabar\u2019s supermarket in New York City, on Nov. 26. Packaged food makers and fast-food restaurants may \u200cbe forced to overhaul more of their products next year as newly approved, appetite-suppressing GLP-1 pills become available in January, analysts say.<\/p>\n

NEW YORK >> Packaged food makers and fast-food restaurants may \u200cbe forced to overhaul more of their products next year as newly approved, appetite-suppressing GLP-1 pills become available in January, analysts say. More Americans are expected to try the drugs as a pill rather than as a shot because the medication will be cheaper and many patients are hesitant to inject themselves.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk\u2019s Wegovy GLP-1 pill on \u200dMonday, sending shares of food companies down on Tuesday. Eli Lilly\u2019s rival medication is expected to gain approval from regulators next year.<\/p>\n

Food companies, including Conagra Brands and Nestle, are already dealing with shifts in consumer tastes toward higher protein and smaller portions due to the popularity of weight-loss injections, and analysts believe widespread GLP-1 adoption could mean long-term changes in demand. To cope, businesses \u200bare promoting products with more protein, tweaking labeling to say they are GLP-1 friendly and working with \u200blarge retailers to better market products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing people cut (back) specifically on salty snacks, liquor, soda, drinks, and bakery snacks, and more focused on protein and fiber, so we expect food companies and also restaurants to cater to this audience that is growing,\u201d said JP Frossard, consumer foods analyst at Rabobank. \u201cWe\u2019ll see more access \u200dto those drugs and a higher addressable market for products that have in mind the needs of the GLP-1 user,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andrew \u200bRocco, stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research, called Novo\u2019s approval \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d because the pill would be \u2060cheaper than the injectable version of Wegovy and deliver the same weight-loss metrics. \u201cHigh protein, smaller portions, and functional food innovation will be necessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some 40% of American adults are obese, U.S. government data shows, and around 12% of adults say they currently take GLP-1 drugs, according to a poll \u2060published last month by health policy research organization KFF. Households using GLP-1 medications cut spending at grocery stores by 5.3% and fast-food restaurants by about 8% on average, according to a Cornell Research study published last week that used purchase data collected by Numerator from about 150,000 households.<\/p>\n

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Those reductions largely faded when households stopped using the medication. \u201cThe decreases we saw will likely show up in a much broader slice of the population\u201d because of weight-loss pills, said Sylvia Hristakeva, one of the study\u2019s co-authors. She said the cheaper price and ease of use of pills will also make it likely that people use the medication for longer.<\/p>\n

While the Cornell \u2060study found modest increases to spending only in a handful of categories like yogurt and fresh fruit, companies are taking \u200dnote.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Conagra started labeling some of its Healthy Choice frozen meals with high protein and fiber as \u201cGLP-1 friendly.\u201d A spokesperson said those meals are selling faster than rival products making similar claims on their packaging. The company plans to introduce new Healthy Choice recipes \u200dwith the same labeling in May and work with grocers like Walmart and Kroger to market them, \u200bthe spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

French dairy company Danone, which makes Oikos Greek yogurt, said in a \u200dstatement that it is seeing double-digit growth in its high-protein offerings, a trend that has accelerated with the adoption of GLP-1 medications. Nestle, the world\u2019s biggest food company, has also introduced new frozen meals that cater specifically to GLP-1 users, called Vital Pursuit. The Swiss company did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Fast-casual Mexican chain Chipotle on Tuesday added a \u201cHigh Protein Menu\u201d that features, among other items, a single cup of chicken or steak.<\/p>\n

In recent months, some restaurant chains including Olive Garden have added menu \u200bitems for smaller, cheaper portions.<\/p>\n

Noodles & Company marketing head Stephen Kennedy said such menu additions were about offering guests \u201coptions that satisfy without going overboard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REUTERS\/JEENAH MOON\/FILE PHOTO People shop at Zabar\u2019s supermarket in New York City, on Nov. 26. Packaged food makers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":473651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,210,1060,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-473650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-medication","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115788110641957600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}