Conagra Brands Inc on Thursday forecast annual sales and profit below Wall Street estimates, in a sign that higher prices were starting to eat into demand for the Slim Jim beef jerky maker's frozen foods and other packaged meals.

The company, like other global packaged food makers, has been steadily raising product prices over the past few years to counter spiraling costs, and had faced little resistance from consumers until recently.

Persistent inflation has eroded budgets at many American households, forcing consumers to trade down from branded packaged food products to cheaper private-label alternatives, which has impacted sales at Conagra.

The company expects 2024 organic net sales growth to be 1% higher than 2023, while analysts on average were expecting an increase of 2.77%, according to Refinitiv estimates.

Full-year adjusted EPS is expected between $2.70 and $2.75, compared with analysts' average estimate of $2.85 per share.

(Reporting by Mehr Bedi and Aatrayee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)