A Classic Frozen Pizza Is Being Discontinued, And People Are Already Mourning

Oh, boy. This one’s gonna hit hard. The discontinuation of food products usually causes a fair bit of consternation. The emotional attachment we all build to the items we eat every day can run deep – especially if the items in question are ones people have grown up with. And it feels like discontinuation is very much in the air at the moment. We recently heard of a bunch of Monster Energy drinks being discontinued by 2027, and now, they’re coming for pizza. 

Videos by Sporked

When the pizza in question is almost 90 years old, though, it was always going to be a controversial move to take it off shelves. And people aren’t happy about it. 

Goodbye, Celeste Pizza

This week, the news broke that Conagra Brands had decided to discontinue Celeste Pizza, the frozen pizza brand that had been a permanent resident in supermarkets and homes for decades, following a reconsideration by the company of its portfolio and the performance of its items. According to The Street, Conagra CEO John Brase announced the move in an earnings call, in which he said that the company is “making bold decisions now to focus our resources on our strongest opportunities and reduce complexity across manufacturing and procurement.” The move to discontinue Celeste, Brase continued, would allow Conagra “to redirect our resources toward brands and categories where we have greater scale and stronger growth potential.”

Essentially, this all means that Celeste Pizza just wasn’t profitable or adaptable enough to continue in today’s ever-more-competitive environment – and if you look at the amount of options out there, that makes sense. There are a ton of popular frozen pizza brands, and in the last few years, a lot of new names have entered the fray, crowding an already-crowded market. Celeste’s discontinuation, though, brings to an end a brand that started life way back in 1937 as a single pizza restaurant in Chicago.

The Tributes

The announcement of Conagra’s move has been greeted with a lot of conversation, and with a lot of people voicing their sadness that Celeste is no more. Over on @markie_devo’s post about it on Instagram, there are, as of this morning, almost 600 comments discussing the discontinuation, with a lot of people sharing their memories of the pizza. “My grandma always had one of these on hand so will forever remind me of her,” said one person. 

There’s also a sense from some people that Conagra taking this affordable frozen pizza away at a time when the economy isn’t at its rosiest feels like a strange move. Celeste may not be gourmet, but it’s something people could reach for when they needed cheap, easy, no-fuss food. But now? No more.