BITTER TASTE OF SHRINKING XMAS CHOCS
SCROOGE confectionary firms have shrunk the size of Christmas treats without lowering prices. Cadbury has cut the size of its festive favourites six-bar selection box from 208g to 194g. This makes the filled stocking nearly 7 per cent smaller than a year ago – yet it still costs £4. Cadbury’s Freddo selection box has also shrunk, from 154g to 139g, but still costs £2. McVitie’s Victoria Biscuits box is down to 600g from 650g – almost 8 per cent down – while still costing £5.
And McVitie’s Family Circle biscuits still cost £6 despite dropping from 720g to 670g.
The trend is dubbed “shrinkflation” and Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said the public are being ripped off.
He said: “Shrinking products is a sneaky way of putting up costs for consumers because pack sizes shrink but prices don’t.”
Mondelez, which owns Cadbury, said the number of bars in its selection boxes remains the same.
A spokesman said: “We have updated the range available in our selection boxes. This meant the weights of our products changed and while some increased in size, some decreased but the number of remain the same. The retail price has therefore remained the same.”
McVitie’s said: “The rising cost of i ngredients and currency changes means products are getting more expensive to make, and we aren’t always able to absorb the costs.”