The golden age of American TV dinners appears to be over.
TV dinner brand Lean Cuisine, owned by Swiss-based Nestle, has seen sales drop by more than a quarter over the last five years, Bloomberg reported.
Frozen products are Nestle's second-largest market in the U.S. Nestle introduced Lean Cuisine in 1981 as a healthier alternative to Stouffer's dinners.
Lean Cuisine sales at that time were so high Nestle had to ration supplies to supermarkets.
But the decline in sales indicates Americans no longer think frozen dinners have nutritional ingredients- mainly the salt and preservatives like potassium sorbate and sorbic acid, Bloomberg reported.
The research firm Mintel says two-fifths of adults think TV dinners have little nutritional value, even with the availability of low-calorie meals. Others say the frozen dinners are just too expensive.
"It's a health and wellness issue, not just an economic one," Alexia Howard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, told Bloomberg. "The category is not coming back no matter how heavily they promote it."
Lean Cuisine slashed their prices and introduced new meals based on research that says they are healthy. Yet revenue slipped 11 percent in 2013, to $987 million, according to information from the research firm IRI obtained by Bloomberg.
According to a survey by Bernstein Research, the biggest concern about TV dinners is the salt. The first Lean Cuisines contained two-thirds the recommended daily amount of sodium for most adults, at 1,000 milligrams, Bloomberg reported. Current versions contain 600 milligrams.
TV dinners made their way into American freezers six decades ago. Swanson "TV dinners" was the first, and sales rose over the decades as more women joined the workforce, Bloomberg reported.
Other TV dinner brands are also suffering. For 2013, sales of ConAgra Foods-owned Healthy Choice dropped 16 percent. Sales of H.J. Hein's Weight Watchers declined 13 percent, Bloomberg reported.
"Its not hard to make stuff from scratch," Catherine Smith, a 38-year-old mother with two children, told Bloomberg. "I know what I'm putting in the food. It's less processed and it tastes better."
