National Post (National Edition)
Shrinkflation! Nutella tubs smaller, price the same
People will pay more for less. But whether Nutella fans will happily apply the same philosophy to buying a tub of chocolate spread as they would, say, a single pricey item like a watch remains to be seen. Jars of the Italian confection will be smaller in the U.K. and Belgium, Food Navigator reports, but the price will stay the same.
Chocolate and confectionery giant Ferrero hasn't made any changes to Nutella's formulation — it's still 55 per cent sugar by weight — but is shaving 50 grams off of its 450- and 750-gram jars, and 75 grams off of its 900-gram jar.
“The costs in relation to our products have risen,” a Ferrero spokesperson told Food Navigator. By downsizing the size of the jar, the company said, it avoids having to increase the unit price.
Food companies shedding weight off their products as a means of keeping price points low is called shrinkflation — a portmanteau of shrink and inflation — and Nutella is far from the first brand to engage in it.
Mondelez, maker of Toblerone, faced consumer backlash in 2016 by widening the valleys between its distinctive chocolatey peaks. It has since backtracked and returned Toblerone to its original shape — but 50 grams heavier with a heftier price tag to match.
In July 2020, consumers criticized Mondelez again when it announced Cadbury chocolate bar multi-packs would be 200 calories lighter, but cost the same, by the end of 2021.
A spokesperson for the American confectionery told the BBC at the time that the decision to downsize was rooted in health, not economics, saying: "We must play our part in tackling obesity and are committed to doing so without compromising on consumer choice.”
A strategy used by companies the world over, shrinkflation has been happening in Canada for at least the last two decades, according to Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab.
Foods including chips, cookies and pasta have all been affected, he said on Twitter.
In 2011, Charlebois found that Cadbury Creme Eggs had shrunk nearly 13 per cent in four years. And in an effort to make higher bacon prices more appetizing, Canadian processors shaved 79 grams off of their 454-gram packages in 2014.