Fewer chocolates in the box or milk in the ice cream: in order not to increase the prices on the shelves too much and risk scaring away customers worried about their wallets, some manufacturers are discreetly reducing the quantity, even the quality of their products, denounces an association.
“Shrinkflation” (from the English verb shrink, to shrink), which consists in masking the price increases of products by reducing their weight, is in the sights of Foodwatch, which “fights for transparency in the agri-food sector”.
In the program
Complément d'Enquête
broadcast Thursday evening on France 2, Foodwatch thus pinpoints six brands "which have changed the size of their flagship products in recent years".
Lindt's Pyrenean milk chocolate boxes have been reduced by six bites, going from 30 to 24 and reducing the overall weight by 20%.
While the price per kilo, recorded at the Carrefour distributor, has jumped 30% since 2020, the increase in the price of the box has been limited to 4%...
[1/12] 🚨 New foodwatch #shrinkflation survey 🚨 In these times of inflation, some consumer products could see their format decrease and their price inflate.
We have pinned 6 brands that have used this spring over the past 3 years.
Thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/hGkHST9Qxj
— foodwatch France (@foodwatch_fr) September 1, 2022
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
The margins of the supermarkets in question
Salvetat, owned by Danone, reduced the size of its water bottles from 1.25 liters to 1.15 liters in 2020. In the end, the price of the bottle increases little (+ 5%), while the price at the liter rose by 15% at Intermarché.
And Foodwatch points out that the mention "Generous format like the people of the South" has disappeared from the label.
To justify itself, Lindt France explains that “the price per kilogram has increased, reflecting the volatility and rising costs of (its) operations”, according to a letter sent to Foodwatch.
Industrial production costs have soared in recent months (energy, transport, packaging), as have those of agricultural raw materials, for example cocoa.
Regarding prices, some are discarding on supermarkets: "We can only advise a sale price that the distributor is free to apply or not", writes the consumer service of Danone France.
The information on the packaging is, however, their own.
Another example cited by Foodwatch is Kiri cheese, which reduced the serving size of its processed cheese by 10% a year and a half ago, with portions dropping from 20g to 18g.
"At Auchan, the unit price does not seem to have changed but the price per kilo has increased by 11%", notes the association.
Opaque methods... but not illegal
In this period of high inflation, supermarket customers are very sensitive to the prices displayed and it can be dangerous to increase them too much, at the risk of the customer turning to the competition.
Reducing the quantities makes it possible to remain “competitive” while preserving the margins, recently commented the financial analyst John Plassard, of the fund manager Mirabaud.
According to him, about 2% of food products sold in supermarkets could be affected by "shrinkflation", cereals and chocolate bars in mind.
"It's a completely legal practice, provided that the weight of the product is clearly indicated on the packaging so as not to mislead the consumer", explains Guillaume Forbin, lawyer specializing in consumer law at Kramer Levin.
Foodwatch regrets the "opacity" of the process and calls for better transparency in consumer information, via a petition.
“Cheafflation”: the other phenomenon pointed out
“Shrinkflation” is not confined to France.
Many users of the TikTok social network in the United States have pinpointed a tendency to pack more vacuum in the same container.
In his study, John Plassard also puts his finger on another phenomenon, "cheapflation".
It consists of “replacing certain products or foods with cheaper substitutes (food or not).
He gives the example, in the United States, of an ice cream that has become a "frozen dessert", because "we have removed so many dairy products from it (...) that it can no longer be legally called ice cream".
If this can "pose an image problem", in the case where "the list of ingredients on the packaging has been changed", nothing illegal there either, comments Guillaume Forbin.
Anyone who does not respect the “very strict” consumer law is liable to “very high fines”.
Olivia Grégoire calls for an investigation
Another process: the consumer specialist Olivier Dauvers points on his blog to the example of a box of baby food from the giant Nestlé, whose size has increased, from 400 to 415 grams.
It is sold much more expensive than the previous model (+ 23% of the price per kilo).
But the pill passes thanks to the new packaging boasting a mixture now containing "5 cereals", a supposedly better quality product.
We do not play with the wallet of the French.
I have asked the @dgccrf to immediately carry out a series of checks to see if there are any misleading commercial practices.
https://t.co/XoHHaIrj1L
— Olivia Gregoire (@oliviagregoire) September 2, 2022
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
After the dissemination of information from Foodwatch, the Minister Delegate in charge of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Trade, Crafts and Tourism reacted this Friday.
“I have asked the DGCCRF to immediately carry out a series of checks to see if there are any misleading commercial practices,” Olivia Grégoire said on Twitter.
Health
Shortage of sunflower oil: Foodwatch calls for transparency in the event of recipe changes
Economy
Large distribution: Use-by dates removed on some products by some brands
Economy
Consumption
Supermarket
Inflation
Feed