Half empty: The oversize packets cheating shoppers

CUSTOMERS are being duped by ‘misleading’ food packaging that hides how little is really inside, it was claimed yesterday.

At times, more than half of the wrapping used for popular sweets and snacks contains air.

A 120g bag of Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel Nibbles is 14cm high – but the treats only fill 5cm.

Similarly, a 123g packet of Twix Bites stands at 17cm high, but the chocolate inside only fills 7cm. A 460g box of Maynards Bassetts Jelly Babies is 18cm, with the sweets filling 10cm. However, chocolates and sweets are not the only items fooling shoppers.

Judging by its package, a £3.15 avocado wrap from Pret A Manger looks about 24cm long. But when the opaque centre is removed, there are two wraps with a 4cm gap between them. And a 200g packet of Percol organic ground coffee is 20cm tall – however, it is only full to the 7cm mark.

The apparent marketing trick emerged after financial assistant Edward Bond, from Swindon, bought smoked salmon from Aldi but found it covered a little over half of the cardboard tray. The 28year-old said the packaging was ‘blatantly misleading,’ according to The Sunday Times.

Even some toiletries are in oversized packaging – a Sure roll- on deodorant is 12cm high, but the contents fill less than 6cm.

Pret said its wrap was handmade and could be positioned and cut in different ways. Cadbury said the weight of products was clearly labelled – a comment echoed by industry body the Food and Drink Federation. Mars – which makes Twix – said the pack was designed to protect chocolate in transit.

And Unilever, maker of Sure, said it had cut the weight of packaging by 17 per cent since 2010.