Dang! I eat that brand.
this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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Shrinkflation
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A community about companies who sneakily adjust their product instead of the price in the hopes that consumers won't notice.
We notice. We feel ripped off. Let's call out those products so we can shop better.
What is Shrinkflation?
Shrinkflation is a term often coined to refer to a product reducing in size or quality while the price remains the same or increases.
Companies will often claim that this is necessary due to inflation, although this is rarely the case. Over the course of the pandemic, they have learned that they can mark up inelastic goods, which are goods with an intangible demand, such as food, as much as they want, and consumers will have no choice but to purchase it anyway because they are necessities.
From Wikipedia:
In economics, shrinkflation, also known as the grocery shrink ray, deflation, or package downsizing, is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation.
[...]
Consumer advocates are critical of shrinkflation because it has the effect of reducing product value by "stealth". The reduction in pack size is sufficiently small as not to be immediately obvious to regular consumers. An unchanged price means that consumers are not alerted to the higher unit price. The practice adversely affects consumers' ability to make informed buying choices. Consumers have been found to be deterred more by rises in prices than by reductions in pack sizes. Suppliers and retailers have been called upon to be upfront with customers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation
Community Rules
- Posts must be about shrinkflation, skimpflation or another related topic where a company has reduced their offering without reducing the price.
- The product must be a household item. No cars, industrial equipment, etc.
- You must provide a comparison between the old and new products, what changed and evidence of that change. If possible, also provide the prices and their currency, as well as purchase dates.
- Meta posts are allowed, but must be tagged using the [META] prefix
n.b.: for moderation purposes, only posts in English or in French are accepted.##
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Daily Hive contacted Kraft regarding the salad dressing size, but the company never responded to our queries.
You'd think a big company like Kraft Heinz would be able to answer consumer inquiries, especially awkward ones.
Maybe they need to be followed-up-upon, by all of us.
Just make sauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OEDjDKV038
I think I just found my new favorite cooking channel
Every time you find a soft tomato, put it in a bag in the freezer. When you have enough, make your own sauce and freeze that.
A bunch of mine failed to ripen before the weather guy cold so I had a big harvest of green tomatoes.
Found a recipe online for a green tomato relish, picked up a bunch of jars, and figured I'd give it a shot. I figured on my first go it wouldn't really turn out, but we're several jars in and even my kids - who actually don't like (red) tomatoes - specifically ask for it with burgers etc.
Damn, now I've got to buy a $200 freezer to save $10 on spaghetti sauce.
Do you know how many tomatos are required to make sauce? SO MANY
In the USA this also changed ingredients. It has less tomato in it.
This to me is the real crime. If they shrink the portion I can always buy more, but if they mess with the recipe, then I can't get what I want for any price. 😕
Aldi has killed a few things I like this way. They had some decent heat and serve chicken meals we really liked to keep on hand for nights neither of us feel like cooking dinner, but they messed with the ingredients so bad as to make them almost inedible for us. It's so frustrating seeing them still on the shelf at the store, but knowing I can't buy it because it's awful now.
The design change is always done to hide the other changes
There are better pasta sauces. Buy something else.
Make your own, it's not difficult, it just needs to cook for longer but tastes way better.
My go-to:
- 3 cloves garlic + full onion, finely chopped, into a pot to cook in butter, until translucent and slightly browned
- 500g lean beef, until cooked
- 1 can diced or crushed tomatoes (500g), add Italian spice, rosemary and a bit of salt (+ whatever spice you feel like), simmer for about 10 minutes
- Grate some parmesan, add lots of spinach, simmer for about 40 minutes
Serve on large pasta or spaghetti squash au gratin with lots of aged cheddar on top.
Takes an hour, but it's relatively low effort. Simmering is what takes the acidity out of tomatoes and makes it a sweet, meaty sauce.
I've never typed it out until now, so feel free to point out anything I left out!
Edit: spaghetti squash is cut in half, remove seeds, salt + pepper + olive oil the insides, stab the outside with a fork, face down on parchment paper, 400f for 40 minutes in the oven.
When you scrape out the spaghetti squash with a fork, place it in a colander and squeeze the liquid out. This avoids your pasta meal from turning into a water soup.
I like to add a little grated carrot or red wine to mine to balance the acid, but I tend to only cook mine for 20-30 minutes. I'll try longer without these ingredients, you might be on to something here.
This sauce shouldn't be acidic if you cook it for about an hour.
But I could definitely try adding carrot, especially when paired with the spaghetti squash, probably adds some good sweetness!
There are, but the bottle was worth it. In the before time they would go on sale and it was cheaper to buy the sauce and use the jars for canning than to buy new jars.
I have a set of eight of these that I use as my main drinking glasses.
The only better sauces at the major supermarkets near me cost 3x a jar of Classico.
This is why I just make my own sauce. Takes about a half hour for two jars and costs less than a buck per jar. Only uses one pot, too.
And it tastes better.
Hijacking this in case anyone is interested.
Last year I went down a rabbit hole of trying to find the best canned tomatoes I could find in my area that didn't cost an absurd amount (the Italian imported ones from speciality Italian stores are excellent but very expensive). My conclusion is a little irritating.
Alta Cucina tomatoes by Stanislaus (major commercial food supplier) we're by far the best I could find in terms of quality/taste, availability, and price.
Bad news: these are designed for commercial use and only come in huge 28oz cans. So I usually open one , use a quarter of it, and freeze the rest.
Good: Excellent taste. Perhaps not strictly "the best" whatever that means, but so good that it basically made me stop looking further.
More good news: that 28oz can is only $10 at Costco Business Center, which comes to $2.50 ish per normal sized can, which makes it far cheaper than the other premium tomatoes I've seen.
https://www.costcobusinesscentre.ca/alta-cucina-plum-tomatoes%2C-2.84-l.product.100347364.html
If you live somewhere like California that itself grows high quality tomatoes then you probably have many other options. If like me you don't, then I hope this helps.
Whole tomatoes are better to buy canned they apparently keep the flavor better or something.
Diced canned tomatoes without preservatives tend to turn to mush during the canning process. To prevent this, citric acid is often added. Acidity strengthens pectin of whatever. But it affects taste and texture of the tomatoes in a bad way.
Thanks
Assisting in my own hijacking: Thanks for the tip, I’ve been using it expensive Italian ones.
Share your recipe please!
Two 28oz cans of whole, peeled tomatoes, an onion, some garlic, fresh basil, oregano, and tarragon (about a tablespoon each), and salt and pepper.
Sweat the onions until they're translucent, add the garlic, crush the tomatoes by hand, and then simmer with the rest of the ingredients until it smells like an Italian grandma's house.
Also: You'll probably buy a lot more fresh herbs than you'll need, so portion and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and freeze them. Then you have them ready when you want some pasta sauce
Thank you!
The simplest sauce you can make is still damn good:
- 1 can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1/2 yellow onion (literally just cut in half, no slicing needed)
- 1 stick salted butter
Cook slow and low, about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally, until the onion has completely disintegrated.
It's not especially healthy but it's real tasty. Feel free to dress it up with some garlic, basil, meat, etc. in the last 15 minutes if you want.
Near the bottom of the article it shows some pictures of other brands following Kraft by dropping their Mac and cheese size to 200g. This is likely because they are packaged by the same factory using either a different box or a different box and cheaper ingredients.