Shoppers are seeing their favourite products shrink in size or fall in quality despite the price going up, a fresh investigation reveals.
Essentials such as toothpaste, chocolate and porridge oats have all dwindled in size while the cost has increased as companies use this ‘sneaky’ tactic to cut back on the cost of making popular items, a report by consumer group Which? has found.
And some firms have been forced to give popular chocolate biscuits and bars a name change, because they no longer contain enough chocolate to be labelled as such.
Swathes of shoppers told Which? the worst examples of ‘shrinkflation’ they had seen – with the cost per 100 grams of one food cupboard staple rising as much as 236 per cent.
What’s shrinking in YOUR shopping basket?
Aquafresh’s Complete Care Original Toothpaste climbed in price from £1.30 to £2 at a handful of supermarkets – but the amount fell from 100ml to 75ml.
This means the price per 100ml of toothpaste soared by 105 per cent.
Gaviscon Heartburn and Indigestion liquid shrunk from 600ml to 500ml, while the price at one major shop stayed at £14. This is a 20 per cent rise in price per 100ml.
Double whammy: Brands have cut the amount of product in household favourites, while shops have hiked the price
But the most dramatic shrinkflation example spotted by shoppers is Sainsbury’s Scottish Oats.
The size of the bag has halved from 1 kilogram to 500grams, but the price has increased from £1.25 to £2.10 – a 236 per cent surge per 100grams.
Cocoa drought hits chocolate costs
Household favourite KitKat has also been struck by shrinkflation, as its two-finger milk chocolate bar multipack was cut from 21 bars to 18 – but the price at one supermarket jumped from £3.60 to £5.50.
Families shopping for their Christmas chocolates will also be disappointed as Quality Street tubs have been cut from 600grams to 550grams, while the price at one retailer has inched upwards from £6 last year to £7 this year. That is a hike of 27 per cent for each 100grams.
Chocolate prices have soared in the past year due to dwindling supply. Ghana and Ivory Coast – the two main suppliers of cocoa – have seen poor harvests, driven by bad weather.
It’s clear brands are feeling the pinch due to this drought of cocoa. Cadbury’s multipacks of Freddo and Fudge bars both went from five bars to four at a selection of shops yet they are still £1.40 – a 25 per cent rise per chocolate bar.
Mondelez International, which makes Cadbury items, says: ‘We understand the economic pressures that consumers continue to face and any changes to our product sizes is a last resort for our business.
‘However, as a food producer, we are continuing to experience significantly higher input costs across our supply chain, with ingredients such as cocoa and dairy, which are widely used in our products, costing far more than they have done previously.
‘As a result of this difficult environment, we have had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our Cadbury Fudge and Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo multipacks so that we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect.’
It’s a similar story with the Terry’s Chocolate Orange – the toffee crunch variety – which has fallen slightly in weight from 152grams to 145grams at one supermarket, but the price is still £2.
Reena Sewraz, retail editor at Which?, says: ‘Households are already under immense financial pressure with food bills inching up and the expense of Christmas looming on the horizon, so it can feel especially sneaky when manufacturers quietly reduce pack sizes or downgrade key ingredients.’
Sewraz is urging supermarkets to make the unit price on products – for example, the price per 100grams of meat or the price per biscuit across different brands – more visible.
‘Supermarkets must be more upfront about their prices so that it’s easy to see what the best value is,’ she says. ‘This includes ensuring that their unit pricing is prominent, legible and consistent in-store and online to help customers easily compare costs across different brands and sizes of packaging – that way shoppers can be more confident they’re getting the best value.’
The chocolate bars can no longer be called chocolate… because they contain too little
It’s not just the price and weight changing among these shopping basket essentials – some brands are also reducing core ingredients in their well-loved products.
This means some brands are even being forced to re-label their popular items.
For example, Penguin and Club bars, made by McVities, can no longer be lawfully sold as a chocolate biscuit because they contain more palm oil and shea oil than cocoa.
Club was changed to chocolate flavour coating rather than chocolate coating earlier this year.
White KitKats, from Nestle, can no longer be sold as a white chocolate product as the bars do not contain 20 per cocoa butter.
This comes as a selection of manufacturing costs such as energy and ingredients have soared by 39 per cent since January 2020. It means retailers are cutting their costs to shore up their coffers, even if it means fundamentally changing the product.
The Food and Drink Federation explains cocoa prices rose sharply last year to 45-year high, employers’ National Insurance costs have increased and there is a new packaging tax.
It says: ‘As a result, in some cases food manufacturers will have had to make changes to products to continue offering shoppers the food and drink they love at reasonable price points.’
Nestle says: ‘The ‘coating’ description on KitKat White is accurate and compliant to describe the ingredients used in the recipe.
‘We regularly review our recipes to balance quality, affordability, and sustainability. Like every manufacturer, we’ve seen significant increases in the cost of cocoa over the past years making it much more expensive to manufacture our products.
‘As always, we continue to be more efficient and absorb increasing costs where possible. To continue to offer shoppers great value, it is sometimes necessary to adjust recipes of some of our products. Retail pricing is at the discretion of individual retailers.
McVities, Aquafresh, Gaviscon, Sainsbury’s and Terry’s have been approached for comment.
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