The skimming of food packaging is now industry wide.

[allgood33]

Last edited Sun Jan 13, 2019, 12:06 PM - Edit history (1)

I posted this in the Lounge but was told it should be posted here so more people could see it.

This is something that others might find important especially to
to working families that find their wages are not stretching as far with their food shopping. The skimming of food packing is now industry wide and has even worked it's way into storage-brand packaging. I came across this FB page when I wrote a complaint to Florida Naturals who recently dropped their 64-ounce juices to 52 ounces but kept the same packaging and SAME PRICE so that most consumers wouldn't notice the change. It turns out that a lot of consumers noticed and are complaining but we seldom hear about it.

Here is the link so you can see what consumers are saying about these stealth changes.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/FloridasNatural/posts/?ref=page_internal

If the Admins think this post should be posted elsewhere please let me know.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I have noticed this for the past 30 years since I read labels carefully

and have always been on a tight budget (artist/teacher). It was first obvious in breakfast cereals.

[allgood33]

3. We used to have the options of buying store brands. Now this stuff is throughout the industry.

It's just that now it seems to be getting worse. There are now few alternatives to brand goods with less product and higher costs.

[True Blue American]

14. I do buy Generics

Many of them are better quality than the name brand. Oatmeal is one example. The instant. Store brand better than name..

There is one store, guess I better not name brands, but their store brands are a dollar or more cheaper. Bacon is one example. 2 full lbs., $5.39! Great quality. Limited selection. Great produce.

[crazycatlady]

32. I almost always buy generics

And at stores like Aldi, often there's only one brand.

There are very few items in which the name brand is worth it.

[True Blue American]

69. And they average

A dollar cheaper. Bermans.

Anyone know the owners of Aldi and Trader Joes are brothers?

[allgood33]

55. It's time to call it what it is: COLLUSION AND PRICE FIXING.

EW sought to get her favorite agency to look into this to see if any laws are on the books to prevent this kind of gouging of the necessity of food.

[True Blue American]

6. And coffee

12 ounces instead of 16. Candy, bacon, almost everything

[BigmanPigman]

9. I wonder if the companies really think they are fooling anyone?

[True Blue American]

11. Coffee was the

First one I noticed. Ice Cream dropped. The containers are a little smaller.

[BigmanPigman]

13. I have noticed it in all of the items you listed.

The first one for me was candy bars. Halloween used to be great until the late 70s and candy shrunk.

[marylandblue]

27. They are in fact fooling people.

They've done marketing studies on this. People won't buy when the price goes up for the same size package, but they will buy a smaller package at the same price. Of course this doesn't fool everyone, but it does fool enough people to make it worth pissing off the rest.

[davekriss]

31. 40% still approve of Trump

They are fooling many.

[Hekate]

2. Kick

[dalton99a]

4. Less product, same price is now they raise prices on consumers

Last edited Sun Jan 13, 2019, 12:18 PM - Edit history (5)

They've been doing it for years










But it's BIGGER!

[edhopper]

25. Between size reduction

and price increase, chips have more than doubled in price.

[NurseJackie]

48. My husband was glad when stick deodorants went to 3 ounces...I think that's to comply with TSA regs...

My husband was glad when stick deodorants went to 3 ounces...I think that's to comply with TSA regs, and was probably in response to customer requests. That extra 1/4 ounce in STICK DEODORANT was a pain when dealing with some "by-the-book" TSA agents.

Even when one could clearly see that only 1 ounce remained, the 3.25 ounces on the label meant it was a no-go. Same for toothpaste: a clearly used and rolled-up 5-ounce tube was nogo because it said FIVE ounces (even though it clearly only had 2 ounces inside)

Just doing their jobs, I guess.

[tymorial]

54. Yeah it's very noticeable with paper towels

Some brands heavily stamp the papers and then roll loosely so that the packaging takes up the same amount of space as tightly wound brands and products. You go through them twice as fast because there is much less on the roll. Cat litter is another problem. The major brands dont last and have terrible quality, especially the "lighter" versions.

[True Blue American]

70. Not to mention the width.

Look at your rollers. The roll is now an Inch shorter in width.

[tymorial]

74. My wife buys the cheaper brand when she does the shopping

When I do the shopping I always buy the thicker bounty or brawn because they last a week. I have a home office now and we definitely get more time with the large tightly would roll. I personally like the blue shop towels for cleaning but she thinks that's "gross" lol.

When we have the cheap overly patterned cheap brands, they dont last nearly as long. Its worse on the weekends with everyone home. Maybe a day.

[True Blue American]

75. Ibought the big plush last week. Giant rolls!

They will not fit on my ceramic rollers. too big.

Extra plush, but these do not seem to be like the others

[Ms. Toad]

5. They've been doing this for decades.

Just look at any older recipe that measures things by cans (and gives the volume).

One story about it from 2010 - as to tuna fish cans over a period of years (even though the physical size has remained the same (and although the price has risen over time, its rise doees not coincide with the can shrink. https://www.thedailybeast.com/tuna-shrinkage-cans-now-five-ounces-more-expensive.

I know tomato can sizes have also changed over the years, since the recipes I grew up with call for sizes that aren't made anymore.

[True Blue American]

7. Not to mention the quality of Tuna.

Chunk Tuna is now shreds. You have to buy Land caught or Albacore. Anyone else noticed how the quality has deteriorated?

[Nay]

65. YES. I used to be able to eat regular name brand tuna, but now it tastes horrible. I can only

eat the Cadia brand from the health food store. I don't exactly know how they've ruined the taste, unless they are filling the cans with something like pigs' assholes.

[True Blue American]

67. It is as if

They ran out of Tuna.. Mush. Line and Polecaught is pretty good.. There are brands now that are Save the Seas, but I usually buy Albacore in water, not oil.

[YOHABLO]

8. You should beware of Glyphosate .. it's in everything.

Here's just some of the products listed:

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/08/26/list-of-products-brands-that-tested-positive-for-monsantos-glyphosate/

[True Blue American]

12. Thank you for that list.

Last edited Sun Jan 13, 2019, 06:42 AM - Edit history (1)

I see 3 products in my pantry now. Others I have used frequently.

[JudyM]

23. Important info. Thanks for highlighting the issue.

[Raine]

10. THANKS for posting this

so it would be seen by more. I don't get to the Lounge much and probably wouldn't have seen it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Same with "Simply" (Simply Orange, Simply Lemonade, etc)

52 oz. Sneaky price raise.

[True Blue American]

68. On that I buy store brand, not from concentrate.

[llmart]

16. This has been happening for years now.

I remember when Breyers ice cream did that. I read labels carefully.

[highmindedhavi]

26. Back in the 90s I worked for Dreyers Ice Cream Co.

The price of cream went up so much that our company would have to raise prices or reduce the size. We reduced the size and all other brands followed.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. I remember when suddenly, the 5lb bag of sugar became 4lb

a bunch of years ago... Initially it happened during the fall/winter "holiday" season and then come January, the 5lb bags returned. Eventually they were permanently 4lb bags.

I chuckle about how way in the past, consumers had complained so much about boxes of cereal being bags of air, that the labels started stating that the product was being "measured by weight not volume" .

The 6oz cans of tuna became 5oz.
The 16oz box of some pastas became 13oz. or 14.5oz.

I have a can of Campbell's Manhattan Clam Chowder that is labeled with a net weight of "10 3/4oz". Really?

It does mess up recipes requiring cans of stuff now too...

[Talitha]

40. Sugar - that's when I noticed it, too... many years ago.

I noticed it when transferring the bag of sugar to my Tupperware canister.
The level seemed lower, so I read the label... 4 lbs.
I think they call it 'downsizing' but I call it what it is: just plain old sneaky.

[BumRushDaShow]

49. I remember asking a store stocker where the 5lb bags were

and if they had any more and she said that this is what they were sent because it was a popular size during the holidays for baking... or something to that effect.

Um really?

[marybourg]

57. I'm so old that I remember when the tuna fish can was 7.25 oz!

[beveeheart]

60. My mom would make tuna fish sandwiches for a family of 5 back then.

Have to use 2 cans to do that today.

[True Blue American]

71. And that is not

Fit to eat. Flake is now much, chunk flake.

[BumRushDaShow]

62. Here's an interesting article on that (and other products)

Tuna Shrinkage: Cans Now Five Ounces, More Expensive

Gone are the days of the six-ounce can of tuna for $1—tuna fish purveyors have been reducing their can size and upping their prices, leaving buyers and sandwich lovers outraged. William Sherman reports.

William Sherman
07.28.10 8:21 PM ET

“This shrinkage has been going on for years and it’s outrageous,” said Jane Fleetwood, a mother of two who lives in New York City. “I remember when you could make three kids sandwiches from a can of tuna, but that was a while ago.” Following the tuna can timeline, more than 10 years ago <ed., in 2000>, it came in seven-ounce cans, then were diminished to 6 ½ ounces, then 6 1/8, and now a flat five. Americans bought 1.5 billion cans of tuna last year, according to AC Nielsen data. Fish company spokeswomen said the most recent downsizing was due to rising prices for tuna, first canned in 1903, and competition, although it is unclear which company cut the can first in the most recent episode.

Pam Becker, a spokeswoman for Progresso, said, “In order to better align to the current category package sizes, we did move to a five-ounce can for Progresso, making it easier for consumers to compare our brand with other national brands of the same size.” Amanda Rozier, a spokeswoman for Chicken of the Sea said, “Chicken of the Sea followed its competition and industry in the reduction of package sizes.”

The tuna companies declined to discuss price, which for consumers varies from store to store. But Robert Ivers, vice president of Fairway Market, which annually sells more than 400,000 cans of tuna at its five stores in the New York City metropolitan area, said the canners all raised their prices over the last 18 months. “They dropped the size and they raised the prices, and some of that increase we had to pass along, but not all, because we’ve decided to make smaller margins of profit,” he said. “A year ago we were selling Bumble Bee solid white for $1.25 a can; now it’s $1.66. Genova used to be $1.66 for a five-ounce can; now it’s $1.99,” said Ivers.

Meanwhile, serving sizes on most producers’ cans are listed at two ounces, baffling some consumers, who find it hard to conceive of a two-ounce tuna sandwich. “It’s a double whammy for customers,” said Ivers. “I have a 9-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son, so now what do I do? I put in extra mayonnaise.” And, he noted, canned salmon is not exempt from the trend.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tuna-shrinkage-cans-now-five-ounces-more-expensive

[Renew Deal]

18. Tropicana did the same sort of thing during the recession.

And I believe others did too

[PaulX2]

30. Yes They All Reduced The Size At The Same Time

They are all in cahoots together.

[allgood33]

21. Thank you. I will change it. nt

[allgood33]

20. The big issue with me is I could not get any Congressional buy in to the problem to alert consumers

as to what was happening. Everyone I ever stopped in a grocery store was surprised when they read the label on their favorite brand. The food industry gets away with this because they can' they know few consumers pay attention and hardly any complain to the industry. I want to motivate consumers to organize and protest what is happening in the food industry that people are unaware of. Regulations should require that new amounts of contents must be in totally new containers and not look like the packaging with higher amounts. There are no more 1/2 gallon anything. 12 oz has replaced a pound of bacon. 16 oz cans are now down to 11 or 12 ounces now.

There is no competition among and within the food industry. Store brands used to carry the full 1/2 gallons and 16 ounce pounds etc. This is no longer true. I want to fight for real competition in the food industry. There ought to be some entrepreneurs out there willing to provide consumers with standard weights and measures of food items and still maintain high quality foods. Food should actually be going down in price since fuel is going down and cheap labor of migrant workers was used during the last 30 years. Something is very wrong with this system and it is becoming unsustainable without lowering everyone's standard of living. The American dream is fast becoming a nightmare, not because of immigrants but because of greedy and corrupt oligarchs who who own and run our industries.

[highplainsdem]

22. This has been going on for years. If you have any decades-old cookbooks that call for any packaged

ingredients, you'll often see that the size/weight mentioned doesn't begin to match what's sold now.

[Nay]

66. Yes! It's amazing. I've cooked for a loooong time and this is very evident in my older

cookbooks. NO canned item called for in a recipe can be found today in the same size.

[Grammy23]

24. And the sneaky bastards are clever enough to actually change the container -- just slightly

So it is subtle. It may register that the container is smaller — like the ice cream or coffee container. But chances are good that at first you barely noticed. Eventually, it became obvious the container was smaller but they kind of snuck it in so it was gradual. Now that I know they are pulling shenanigans and slight of hand, I pay more attention. It just galls me that they keep shrinking my familiar coffee brand (Folger’s Gourmet Blend) every few months, but the price never really shrinks with the container. If anything, the price per ounce goes up! And it seems like all of the brands are doing this...so changing brands is no solution. 😡

[phylny]

28. Hebrew National hotdogs.

Now six in a package, used to be seven.

[marybourg]

58. Used to be ALL beef also. Now soy.

[phylny]

61. Wow, I missed that! Thanks for letting me know - n/t

[Revanchist]

82. The soy content is under 2%

And there's none in the all natural uncured variety

[MontanaMama]

29. Yogurt. I bake with it a lot

and recipes will usually call for 8 ounces. You can’t buy an 8 oz yogurt anymore. So, I buy the bigger container and can get a recipe or two out of it but there’s always some left over. Frustrating.

[erronis]

33. Interesting. Since packaging/distribution/marketing contribute so much to the price,

I wonder why companies try to save pennies on the actual content.

Also, aren't we all supposed to cut down on our portions? Maybe it's being health conscious.

[allgood33]

34. Don't mind cutting down on our portions. The price should be cut also. It's hidden inflation

so most don't complain because they don't know about it. Inflation is a marker for so many things in the economy, including wages and entitlements. If it is hidden, wages don't have to keep up and neither do benefits. Think about it.

[mathematic]

37. No it's not hidden inflation

The BLS isn't so dumb that they can't figure a price per oz (or whatever the unit of measurement). Think about that.

[Vinca]

35. Have you noticed that toilet paper isn't as wide as it used to be?

It's shrunk a good inch or so in size, so you have to use more and pay the same price.

[allgood33]

42. Yes.

[mitch96]

36. Same with beer.....

12 oz can is now 11.2 for the same price or more.... Hops are more expensive now don't cha know... Some foreign beers are still 12 oz though..

m

[hunter]

38. It's a good reason not to buy them.

Most packaged foods are bad for you and the earth's natural environment anyways.

For example, there hasn't been any canned tuna or ice cream in our house for decades.

We do buy breakfast cereal at Costco, and half gallons of soy milk at the grocery store. No smaller packages there, and 20+ pound bags of brown rice and beans are always going to be a big, by definition.

[keithbvadu2]

39. Keeping the same package size

[Demovictory9]

45. Lol

[2naSalit]

53. If you live above 6,000ft elevation

they all look like that! No matter what's in them.

[enid602]

41. Elderly

I work in the Corporate Brands Department of the number 2 US grocery chain. I take calls all day long from seniors who actually count the number of beans in the can, and the number of sheets in a roll of toilet paper. And yet they ALL (at least the white ones) voted for and continue to support an ogre who gave a massive tax break to the rich that will cut revenues to such an extent that we will have REAL inflation, and the possibility of no/diluted SS and Medicare in the future. The Govt, of course just won’t be able to afford these programs anymore. They deserve what they’ll get.

[allgood33]

43. And it seems that no one is sending the messages to educate them. Most do not realize who is

responsible or who is not being accountable. They believe that MAGA should mean that big business should get all the benefits because Trump said so. They do not realize that the food industry is big business that gets the tax breaks yet continues to skim them at the marketplace. Sad. i wish EW or AOC would speak out about this issue. I sent them both tweets and e-mails. It's hard to suggest anything to them when they do not open their twitter accounts to private messages.

[True Blue American]

72. Penny wise

Lb. Foolish.

[keithbvadu2]

47. Toilet paper sheets

Toilet paper sheets

Someone I know working in Dubai noticed that the tp rolls didn't seem to last as long.

The outer diameter of the roll was the same but comparing older to newer showed that the newer rolls had a larger diameter for the cardboard roll in the middle.

[Mariana]

73. They keep making the rolls narrower too, so each sheet is smaller.

I remember some years ago buying a new package of the very same brand and variety of toilet paper I already had, and I noticed the difference. Set on their ends side by side, the new rolls were a full 1/2 inch smaller than the old rolls. They had the same number of sheets, but the sheets were significantly smaller. I know they've made them smaller still since then.

[Demovictory9]

44. I notice.big dips on the bottom of glass.bottles

[NurseJackie]

46. Consumer Reports covers this often. Cereal boxes and salad dressing bottles are getting thinner.

Cereal boxes, cracker boxes, and salad dressing bottles are getting thinner.

[allgood33]

50. I guess one might say there is REAL COLLUSION within the food industry. And it needs to be stopped.

Only Congress can really do anything about it. It used to be called "price fixing"

[FakeNoose]

59. Yes indeed but grocery stores are at fault too

Most grocery stores line up all the brands together on one huge shelf and sometimes the only distinguishing feature is the price. Consumers usually go for the "cheapest" price taking no notice that one package is a different size, or features/quality may be different. When the brands are forced to complete on price alone, then the higher quality/higher priced brands will suffer.

All the brands and products are not the same, but few shoppers take the time to notice the differences. That's what the grocery stores want us to do! They want us to buy on price only, at least that's what they promote with their store policies. I see this practically everywhere except maybe the Dollar Store-type markets, but those aren't really groceries.

[RandiFan1290]

51. Coffee

[BlueJac]

52. Their dirty little secret...

my wife and I have noticed to price increase and the repackaging!

[Rver]

56. gtk that others noticed

too. I started seeing it 6? Months ago. What I saw was 59 to 52 oz. OJ. A few years ago it was cherrios 14 to 12 oz. Same price now. Who do we complain to?

[allgood33]

63. We complain first to our reps in Congress and then hope they will put forth some regs that at

least require the industry to stop the price fixing. I believe there is absolute collusion among them on the packaging and prices. They seem to stopping any products with the old traditional weights and measures in store brands.

[SweetieD]

64. Yes I notice this. Also they will change formulations but keep same package and price.

Like they will add more water or filler so the weight looks the same but keep the same price.

[keithbvadu2]

77. Sometimes it works the other way.

I read years ago that sardines were packed very full in the can because they cost less than the oil filler.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

76. Anyone who's been paying attention

has been aware of this for at least fifty years. It's just that different things get downsized at different times, so someone who never buys tuna would never notice that change.

I only buy solid white albacore tuna, and only that for years now. The other, cheaper kind, has never tasted good to me.

As for toilet paper, I've only bought Scott brand for a couple of decades now, when a fellow customer in a store pointed out to me how very much more tissue was on each roll of that brand compared to the other brands.

Disposable diapers suddenly started packaging significantly fewer diapers per container right around the time my youngest child was toilet trained. Haven't needed to buy diapers for about 30 years now, so I haven't a clue what they currently cost.

It's everywhere.

[louis-t]

78. I've been complaining about this stuff for many years.

The first time was with tea packaging. When contents went from 24 to 20 bags, overnight, industry-wide, I wrote a letter to Bigelow. Their response was pitiful: "Our customers told us they wanted more con-veeeeenient packaging." I laughed in the lady's face (over the phone). The next time was when tuna cans went from 7 oz. to 6.5 to 6 to 5 oz. I asked the people at StarKist how long they estimated it would be before we were buying 1 oz. cans. The response was "Oh sir, we took out mostly water."

[WePurrsevere]

79. It's what I've called, 'inflation by deflation' for many years...

I'm very happy to see more people finally waking up to this and complaining.

I get that companies need to make a profit but manufacturers pulling this sneaky as heck bull deserve to be called out. It's essentially deceitful and it messes up individual/family budgets as well as some recipes too.

[keithbvadu2]

80. 1983 Navy ship Pusan, Korea port visit

Street vendors had a bag of socks, six pair in the bag.
They would sell the bag for a dollar but you had to really haggle.
Just not enough profit.
The next night, there were five pair in the bag and they were happy to sell for a buck.

Rome port visit trip. Stayed overnight hotel.
Noon meal, two liter bottle of soda, 1500 lira.
Next day, 1000 lira...... but one liter bottle.

[SoCalDem]

81. I am a cook...and it's annoyed me for a LONG time

for instance.. I have a pumpkin bread recipe and every year I am pissed off because the recipe calls for TWO CUPS of canned pumpkin..

cans USED to be 16 oz (2 cups),.and a few years ago they changed it to 15 oz (some brands are 14.5)... so I have to buy TWO cans and throw away a lot or make an enormous batch with a larger can and a smaller can..

This year I used applesauce for the remaining ounce I was missing..

a "pound of bacon" is now anywhere from, 10 oz to 12

a "pound of coffee" is sometimes 11, 13 ounces

I sometimes use my grandmother's cookbook.. many of the recipes call for a #303 can or a #2 or a #10 can... youngsters have NO IDEA what that even means