Kraft Foods Inc said that splitting into two companies would lead it to cut about 1,600 jobs in North America this year and that its 2011 profit should be slightly higher than it had previously forecast.

About 40 percent of the job cuts come from the company realigning its US sales division, Kraft said. About 20 percent of the jobs being cut in the US and Canada are currently open positions, the company said. The planned job cuts do not include any cuts at manufacturing facilities.

The 1,600 job cuts represent about 1.26 percent of the company’s total workforce. Kraft has about 127,000 employees, including about 46,500 in North America.