General Mills Inc. raised its full-year core sales and profit forecast on Wednesday, encouraged by higher prices and strong demand for the Cheerios maker's cereals, snack bars and pet food.

The pandemic-driven uptick in grocery demand has held strong, boosting sales at General Mills, as people stick to cooking more at home at a time when restaurants have bumped up menu prices to offset inflation.

The sustained demand, coupled with price hikes across the board, has helped packaged food peers including Kraft Heinz , Kellogg and Conagra Brands top profit expectations in recent months.

The company now expects organic net sales to rise by about 5% in fiscal 2022. It had earlier forecast annual organic sales to increase 4% to 5%.

The company forecast adjusted per-share profit to range between flat and an increase of 2%, compared with its earlier range of a 2% decline to a 1% rise. The company's net sales rose to $4.54 billion in the third quarter ended Feb. 27 from $4.52 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average had estimated sales of $4.55 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.