Chocolate, coffee, toothpaste and even heartburn medicine among worst shrinkflation examples, Which? finds

Chocolate, coffee, toothpaste and even heartburn medications are among the products most affected by “shrinkage,” a new study has found.

Which consumer group? Big brands have been seen reducing the quality as well as the size of popular products, with some materials being downgraded for cheaper alternatives.

Which? asked shoppers to share some of the worst examples of supermarket shrinkage they’ve seen in recent months.

Examples included Aquafresh Complete Care Original Toothpaste, whose price rose from £1.30 for 100ml to £2 for 75ml, a 105 per cent increase in price per 100ml at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado.

Bottles of Gaviscon Heartburn and Indigestion Fluid have dropped from 600ml to 500ml, while the price at Sainsbury’s remains at £14 per 100ml, up 20 per cent.

Which? It also found that Sainsbury’s Scotch Oats had fallen from 1kg to 500g, while the price had risen by 236 per cent from £1.25 to £2.10 per 100g.

Nescafe Original Instant Coffee is up 5 per cent from 200g to 190g per 100g at Tesco, Morrisons and Asda.

Shoppers have reported missing whole chocolate bars from multipacks due to the rising cost of the candy’s raw ingredients.

In one example, Which? It found that KitKat Two Fingers Milk Chocolate Bar multipacks dropped from 21 bars to 18 bars, while the price on Ocado rose from £3.60 to £5.50, a 53 per cent increase.

Shoppers planning to buy chocolate for the festive season may see lighter boxes this year, the watchdog warned.

Quality Street chocolate bars have been reduced from 600g to 550g, while the price of smaller bars at Morrisons has increased from £6 to £7 this year.

Meanwhile, multipacks of Cadbury’s Freddo and Fudge bars have fallen from five bars to four at Morrisons, Ocado and Tesco, but the £1.40 price remains unchanged.

The price of Terry’s £2 chocolate orange ball toffee crunch remains unchanged but the size at Tesco has increased by 5 per cent from 152g to 145g.

Besides the shrinking of products, Which? As manufacturers look for ways to cut costs, there have also been reports that some of the country’s most beloved treats are missing key ingredients.

The consumer group found White KitKats now contain less than 20 percent cocoa butter, meaning they can no longer be marketed as a white chocolate product.

This is just as McVitie’s favorites, the Penguin and Club bars, now contain more palm oil and shea butter than cocoa, meaning they can no longer legally be sold as chocolate biscuits.

Since McVitie’s white digestives contain no cocoa butter, they also cannot be marketed as a white chocolate biscuit.

Which? Retail editor Reena Sewraz said: “Households are already under huge financial pressure with rising food bills and Christmas expenses looming on the horizon, so it can feel particularly insidious when manufacturers quietly reduce pack sizes or downgrade the quality of key ingredients.

“Supermarkets need to be more upfront about their prices so it is easy to see what the best value is.

“This includes ensuring unit prices are prominent, legible and consistent in store and online to help customers easily compare costs across different brands and pack sizes, so shoppers can be more confident they are getting the best value.”

A spokesman for Mondelez International, which makes Cadbury products, described any size changes as a “last resort.”

They continued: “However, as a food manufacturer, we continue to experience significantly higher input costs in our supply chain, with ingredients such as cocoa and dairy commonly used in our products costing much more than before.

“Meanwhile, other costs such as energy and transportation remain high.

“This means our products continue to become much more expensive to make, and although we have covered these costs as much as possible, we still face serious challenges.

“As a result of this challenging environment, we have had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our Cadbury Fudge and Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo multi-packs so that we can continue to offer consumers the brands they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect.”

A spokesperson for Nestle said: “Like every producer, we have seen significant increases in the cost of coffee, making our products much more expensive to produce.

“As always, we continue to become more efficient and offset rising costs where possible.

“To maintain the same high quality and delicious taste that consumers know and love, it has sometimes been necessary to make adjustments to the weight or size of some of our products.

“Retail pricing is always at the discretion of individual retailers.”

Regarding White KitKat, he added: “Like every manufacturer, we have seen significant increases in the cost of cocoa in recent years, making our products much more expensive to produce.

“To continue providing great value to shoppers, it may sometimes be necessary to adjust the recipes of some of our products.”

A spokesperson for the Food and Drink Federation said: “Cocoa prices rose sharply last year, reaching a 45-year high.

“Alongside other rising costs such as national insurance increases and a new packaging tax, manufacturers are paying almost 40 per cent more for materials and energy than in January 2020.

“As a result, in some cases food manufacturers will have to make changes to products to continue offering customers the food and beverages they love at affordable price points.”