The Grocery Shrink Ray has expanded its range and is no longer just hitting the US. Pint-sized woe has befallen the the UK snack section. For one, the Dairylea triangle is shrinking from 180 to 160g per cheese wheel. Other shrunken products include Rolo, Palmolive, Olvatine, Dairy Milk, Mars bars, Yorkie chocolate bars, and Pringles.Check out the company double-talk as they tried to explain away the changes, sometimes with verbal softshoe, others with oddly pugilistic rebuttals:

Makers Kraft deny any trickery and claim they are merely “harmonising triangle weights across the range”.

Cadbury spokesman Tony Bilsborough said: “The sizes of the bars goes up and down all the time to suit the market. Dairy Milk comes in all different shapes and sizes and there are a range of cost factors involved.”

[Pringles] Spokesman Garry Stephenson said: “We launched a new Pringle with a better crunch texture, better flavour and a significant reduction in total fat and saturates.”

Alex Beckett, from The Grocer magazine, says food firms are facing financially tough times and sympathised with their plight.

He said: “This isn’t about ripping consumers off – the cost of making these products has rocketed because of more expensive food ingredients and energy costs. It’s such a competitive marketplace with each manufacturer bitterly fighting with the next one.

“Downsizing portions and maintaining the original price isn’t sneaky. It is a way of cushioning the blow to the consumer. Bumping prices up would hit people much harder.

“And besides, smaller portion sizes are healthier for consumers, especially at a time when obesity is so widespread. It won’t do us any harm to be eating a little bit less.”

Bollocks.

Our favourite snacks are being quietly downsized… so why’s the price the same? [Daily Mirror] (Thanks to Deborah!)

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