Honey, they’ve shrunk the groceries! Some popular items now 30 per cent smaller but cost the same

SOME popular groceries have been sneakily shrunk by as much as 30 per cent, but their cost has failed to fall. We expose the worst offenders.

Amanda Roberts gets a helping hand from her daughter Piper, unpacking her groceries. POPULAR groceries have been sneakily shrunk by as much as 30 per cent, but their cost has failed to fall. Pic Nathan Edwards

EXCLUSIVE

POPULAR groceries have been sneakily shrunk by as much as 30 per cent, but their cost has failed to fall.

Laundry liquid, deodorants, chips and chocolate are the chief sources of inflation-by-stealth, News Corp Australia can reveal.

Manufacturers’ explanations for the reductions include protecting the environment, portion control and saving local jobs.

However, consumer advocates say “weight-outs”, as they are known, are about making more money.

Have you noticed other products getting smaller? Let us know.

“Manufacturers try to wrap us up with every excuse under the sun about why they need to reduce the value of their products but the excuses are usually very hard to swallow,” said Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey.

The man responsible for the introduction of “unit pricing” on supermarket shelves, Ian Jarratt of the Queensland Consumers Association, said downsizing was “an attempt to take advantage of many consumers being more conscious of total price than quantity and unit price”.

“It is really a sneaky price increase that many consumers resent, especially those who are budget shoppers,” Mr Jarratt said.

Supermarket chains, and businesses that have access to “big data” on what we buy, refused to provide information on the packet racket. But News Corp Australia has obtained figures from a different source, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. Each reduction has been verified with the manufacturer.

The biggest cut — 30 per cent — has been to Omo laundry liquid. Its maker Unilever said the smaller packs “deliver the same washing experience”.

Can you add to the list? Email details to [e-mail]

Jodie Bowley, of Kangaroo Point, has noticed the shrinking sizes of groceries at Woolworths. Pic: Tara Croser.

Unilever has also shrunk the Impulse deodorant can by 24 per cent. This “improvement” was “so it would more easily fit in handbags”.

Cadbury took a 25 per cent bite out of its Caramello Koala and nibbled 20 per cent from the Freddo Frog. Cadbury chocolate blocks were also reduced by nine per cent this year.

A spokesman for the owner of Cadbury, Mondelez Australia, said: “These changes were due to increases in the overall cost of manufacturing which we could no longer absorb.”

It is worth nothing the US-dollar price of key ingredient cocoa is at similar levels to what it was from 2009 to 2011. Mondelez said its product costs were “far more complicated than the price of commodities at a given time”.

Rival Nestle took up to 15 per cent out of Kit-Kats less than a year ago. A spokeswoman said the “focus of the change was portion size” because they had been too “high energy”.

Pepsico, which is said to have pioneered weight-outs, has sliced 11 per cent from Red Rock Deli chips, while stablemates Smiths and Doritos have shed three per cent this year.

“All Smith’s Potato Chips, Red Rock Deli Potato Chips and Doritos Corn Chips continue to be manufactured in Australia using Australian-grown potatoes and corn,” a Pepsico spokeswoman said.

Likewise, protecting local jobs was part of the reason for the three per cent reduction in Edgells canned corn in May. However, maker Simplot’s executive director of quality and innovation, Callum Elder, also said there hadn’t been “enough headspace” inside cans, which was causing food safety issues.

It is rumoured that Pringles’ maker Kellogg is preparing to halve packet sizes. This was denied.

Almost all laundry powders simultaneously halved in size in 2009. Four years later, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began Federal Court proceedings alleging cartel behaviour had cost shoppers $146 million.

The case is yet to be heard. Colgate-Palmolive and PZ Cussons are defending the action.

Unilever was granted immunity after helping to reveal “Project Mastermind”.

Documents filed with the court say the industry-wide move was an “environmental policy” and “sustainability initiative”.

Originally published as Honey, they’ve shrunk the groceries! Some popular items now 30 per cent smaller but cost the same