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ConAgra has discontinued several of its Healthy Choice frozen dinners because of lagging sales and changes in consumer tastes. Shown, a worker sprinkles cheese on a pasta meal at ConAgra's plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Matt Miller for The Wall Street Journal
Americans' ardor for frozen food is going cold.
Long at the center of the supermarket and the heart of kitchen convenience, freezer-aisle items are struggling today as Americans shift their tastes to fresh food that they see as healthier.
Frozen-food sales, by dollars, have lagged behind the rate of inflation the past four years, and sales by number of units have fallen. Dollar sales of frozen juice, chicken and pizza all are down since 2009, according to market-research company Nielsen. And sales of frozen meals fell 3% to $8.92 billion from 2009 through 2013, according to Euromonitor International.
The struggles of a category that for decades drove innovation show how fast consumer perceptions of health and convenience can turn—forcing companies to catch up. Consumers in their 20s and 30s, in particular, are driving the changes in frozen food, executives say, as they grew up in an era of heightened awareness about nutrition, intense scrutiny of the food industry and the advent of the Internet and social media to fuel that fire.The toll has been especially heavy for big brands that target health-conscious eaters. Nestlé SA  's Lean Cuisine low-calorie frozen-meals brand lost more than a quarter of its sales over the past five years to less than $1 billion, says IRI, a Chicago-based market-research firm. ConAgra Foods Inc.  has discontinued several of its Healthy Choice dinners, because of lagging sales and changes in consumer tastes.
TV shows like " Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals," which teach viewers how to cook fresh meals quickly, and the availability of pre-chopped vegetables and other prepared, meal components in grocery stores, have made cooking easier and more appealing. Big food companies now are seeking ways to rekindle demand for frozen products. "Within this foodie culture the last few years, I think there has been a change in how some people define healthy foods," said Rob McCutcheon, president of ConAgra's consumer frozen-food division, whose brands also include Marie Callender's and Banquet frozen meals. "There is definitely a push toward products that are more real, higher quality, more homemade and closer to the source."
Few things changed the U.S. food business as dramatically as Clarence Birdseye's invention of a technique for quick freezing fish in the early 1920s using an electric fan, salt brine and ice cakes. The method allowed food to keep while preserving most of its flavor, texture and nutrients. Mr. Birdseye sold his company in 1929, but the name lives on as a brand of frozen vegetables.
Fifth in a series about how consumer perceptions and corporate strategies shape the national diet.
The rationing of metal used for canned food during World War II, and the growing prevalence of household refrigerators in the postwar years pushed frozen food into the mainstream. Sales grew steadily, fueled by products like Swanson's TV dinners and Totino's frozen pizza in the 1950s, the spread of microwave ovens in the 1970s and '80s, and the advent of low-fat and steamed items appealing to an increasingly health-aware public in the '80s and '90s.
Trouble began about a decade ago, as quicker, fresher and often cheaper options emerged. Higher-end fast-food chains likeChipotle Mexican Grill Inc. as well as supermarkets offering more freshly prepared meals lured away shoppers focused on health or convenience. (See how you score on a quiz to select the smarter choices among these packaged-food match-ups.)
Cooking shows and health-advocacy groups encouraged consumers to use fresh foods for better taste and nutrition, further hurting the perception of frozen food.
For instance, a cooking reality show on the Food Network called "Worst Cooks in America," featured an episode in 2011 in which contestants had to replicate a frozen meal using fresh ingredients.
Until recently, "the frozen-food industry hasn't been particularly good at communicating the benefits of frozen food," said Paul Grimwood, Nestlé's U.S. chief.
Frozen-food executives say the shift is based largely on misperception. While the transparent packaging of prepared foods in the refrigerated aisles can make them appear fresher than the cartons of frozen foods, the frozen items often have fewer preservatives because temperature prevents rotting, they say.
And sometimes, food that is prepared "fresh" at the grocery-store deli or bakery actually came in frozen from a warehouse, said Todd Hale, consumer analyst at Nielsen.
A few frozen categories have done well, such as fruit, which has become popular for making smoothies. But over roughly the past four years, sales of frozen, unprepared poultry fell 9.3%, frozen juice dropped 26% and frozen pizza slid 5.6%, not accounting for inflation, according to Nielsen.
QUIZ: It isn't easy to judge food by its packaging. See how you score when it comes to selecting the smarter choices among these packaged-food match-ups.
In addition, more than half of the people buying frozen food are 45 years old or older, and fewer shoppers are wandering down that aisle than in previous years, according to ConAgra. "I don't remember the last time I ate a frozen meal," said Brandon Allen, a 21-year-old college student shopping recently at a Chicago Wal-Mart Marketplace. His basket held fresh ground beef and vegetables. The only iced items were frozen blackberries and strawberries for smoothies. "Otherwise I buy as fresh as possible," he said. "I just perceive fresh to generally be healthier and I get more fulfillment when I cook my own meals with fresh ingredients."
Grocery stores have sought to capitalize on the desire for fresh foods by sprucing up the perimeter of the store with farmers' market-style produce bins and delis and cafes. But the fresh boom is a two-edged sword for grocers. "It's a huge problem for retailers. They have these expensive freezer cases that they need to fill, and the big brands are dragging down sales," said Steve Hughes, a former ConAgra executive who led the team that launched Healthy Choice in 1988. He now runsBoulder Brands Inc.,  which owns all-natural and gluten-free brands of frozen food.
Kroger Co.  , the nation's largest food retailer after Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said frozen sales have weakened over the past three to four years. "It's part of that trend in people wanting to cook at home and wanting to know what's in their food," said Kroger Chief Financial Officer Mike Schlotman.
ConAgra is trying to use fewer ingredients in its frozen meals to make them seem more natural. Pictured, workers at its Council Bluffs, Iowa, plant. Matt Miller for The Wall Street Journal
The American Frozen Food Institute last month launched a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign with its first national TV ads aimed at repairing the image of frozen food. It emphasizes that freezing can preserve nutrients in food better than fresh produce sitting out in the supermarket.In one commercial, a woman's voice emphasizes that fruits and vegetables are kept at their peak by freezing them when they are fresh. "Because freezing is nature's pause button," she said.
ConAgra, meanwhile, is trying to use fewer ingredients in its frozen meals to make them seem simpler and more natural. It now uses fresh garlic, for instance, because the garlic paste it used previously contained other ingredients that Healthy Choice had to list on its labels.Nestlé is trying to reheat its Lean Cuisine brand with products that tap into the fresh-food movement. It calls them "salad additions": boxes that contain frozen chicken, dressing and other toppings, which the consumer is supposed to heat up and add to their own lettuce. It has also launched breakfast sandwiches and cheese-stuffed pretzel bites to capitalize on breakfast and snacking—areas that generally are growing. Nestlé declined to say how those items are selling.
ConAgra is also now focusing on older consumers and empty-nesters with Healthy Choice by advertising heart-healthy benefits and smaller portions."Lots of brands are going after younger households, so baby boomers are a [better fitting] target, and they're online as much as anybody," Mr. McCutcheon said.