Adam Rountree/Bloomberg News

Del Monte Foods agreed on Thursday to sell itself for $5.3 billion, including debt, to a group of private equity firms led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in what is the biggest leveraged buyout this year.

The deal by K.K.R. and two other firms, Vestar Capital Partners and the buyout arm of Centerview Partners, is also the latest in a streak of food-related mergers and acquisitions.

The takeover of Del Monte — whose product line is now dominated by pet foods like Kibbles ‘n Bits rather than fruits and vegetables — would also be among the largest consumer-goods buyouts in recent years.

Private equity firms have been on a tear this year, buoyed by billions of dollars in their war chests and the bond market boom that has supplied them with cheap debt to finance their deals.

TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners announced a deal this week to take over J. Crew for about $3 billion. About $10 billion worth of leveraged buyouts were announced this week, the most in one week since the height of the private equity boom in the summer of 2007, according to data from Capital IQ.

Still, the relatively steady stream of takeovers has topped out at about $5 billion, a far cry from the $10-billion-plus deals during the buyout boom earlier this decade. While the junk bond markets have recovered from their lows during the financial crisis, private equity firms are still unable to raise the money needed to strike giant leveraged buyouts.

Banks and private equity firms are still discussing how to complete larger deals. But for now, many of the larger buyout players have been able to adjust to what they call “the new normal” of smaller transactions.

Under the terms of the deal, the buyout group will pay $19 a share for Del Monte, a 40 percent premium to the food company’s three-month average stock price. The private equity firms will also assume about $1.3 billion of Del Monte’s debt

The deal is expected to close in March, although under the provisions of a so-called go-shop period, the company will have until Jan. 8 to find a better offer.

A deal for Del Monte represents another trip into private ownership and a return to the fold of K.K.R., still led by two of its founders, Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts. The private equity firm had sold the brand in 1990 as part of its landmark $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco. Del Monte passed through other ownership changes before being taken public by TPG in 1999.

Vestar, based in New York, has long been active in consumer deals. The firm recently sold the frozen foods maker Birds Eye Foods to the Pinnacle Foods Group, which is owned by the Blackstone Group , for $1.3 billion.

The deal also highlights Centerview’s $500 million private equity arm, which is led by James M. Kilts, the highly regarded former chief executive of Gillette who brokered its sale to Procter & Gamble in 2005. A consumer-goods veteran who has also run Nabisco, Mr. Kilts has won admiration from Warren E. Buffett for his deal-making skills.

While still associated with sliced peaches and fruit, the Del Monte of today draws roughly half of its $3.7 billion in annual sales from pet food brands like Snausages. (While it still sells canned fruits and vegetables, it no longer has ties to Fresh Del Monte Produce , which carries on the business of selling fresh pineapples and bananas.)

Del Monte is a relatively new entrant in the industry, having built its pet food business from virtually nothing through acquisitions. Those included purchases of Meow Mix Holdings and Milk-Bone dog biscuits, both in 2006.

Pet snacks and pet foods are among the fastest-growing parts of the consumer-goods industry. Timothy S. Ramey, an analyst at D. A. Davidson & Company, praised Del Monte as a “world-class business” in a research note last week, noting that 65 percent of its earnings before income and taxes arose from the company’s pet business.

“This transaction delivers substantial shareholder value and is a clear endorsement of Del Monte’s strategic success and effective execution,” Richard G. Wolford, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Pet food merchants, and food businesses more generally, have also proved attractive for private equity firms, which are drawn to the companies’ stable cash flows.

K.K.R. has already struck one buyout in the sector this year, acquiring the British retailer Pets at Home for $1.5 billion in January.

Centerview Partners advised the buyout group, along with Bank of America Merrill Lynch , JPMorgan Chase , Morgan Stanley and the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Financing for the deal is being provided by Bank of America, Barclays Capital, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and K.K.R.’s own capital markets arm.

Del Monte was advised by Barclays Capital and the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Its board was advised by Perella Weinberg Partners.