Regulation of feeding is achieved through interactions between homeostatic and non-homeostatic circuits. Here we investigated the role of projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a key region for reward-related and motivated behaviours, to the lateral hypothalamus (LH), a critical structure for integrating information to control appetitive and consummatory behaviours. We found that dopamine, glutamate and GABA neurons from the VTA project to the LH and make functional synapses. Whereas photostimulation of VTA-to-LH GABAergic projections did not affect food intake and possessed neutral valence, we found the activation of glutamatergic VTA-to-LH projections was sufficient to suppress feeding, to stop ongoing food consumption and induced an aversive response together with a slight increase in locomotion. Thus, our data suggest that the glutamatergic mesohypothalamic pathway is part of the emergency feeding circuits that quickly stop food consumption.