It might be crunch time for biscuit lovers, as leading brand McVitie's has announced it is cutting the size of its packs of Digestives and both Club and Penguin bars.
Standard packs of McVitie’s Digestives are to be cut from 400g to 360g, and multi-packs of Penguin and Club biscuits reduced from eight bars to seven, with the iconic brand expecting the new size packs to hit the shelves in the next few weeks.
Some of the nation's favourite biscuits are the latest to be hit by what's become known as 'shrinkflation' – a tactic used by manufacturers to counter soaring production costs. As the shelf price remains the same, it is effectively a price rise by the back door.
Read more: Fast forward to 2042, when a Greggs sausage roll could cost nearly £2
Shrinkflation has been used by leading brands and stores amid soaring cost of raw ingredients, energy, fuel, pay and other costs. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has pushed up the cost of commodity crops such as wheat and vegetable oils, which are widely used in the manufacture of Britain's most popular biscuits.
But it does not just happen to our snacks. Everything from laundry detergent to ready meals have been subject to shrinkflation in the past couple of years.
Last year, Walkers cut two bags of crisps from its 24-bag multipacks while the price stayed the same. Smith’s Frazzles and Chipsticks now sell in a pack of six bags instead of eight and bags of KP peanuts are now 225g instead of 250g.
Laundry detergent has also shrunk in some cases, with Persil boxes now being packed with 75g less washing powder for the same price, meaning that shoppers now get 37 washes from a pack instead of 40, and tubs of Fairy Non Bio Pods which used to contain 40 pods now only have 36.
Last year, Tesco joined other supermarkets in cutting 50g from the weight of each of the ready meals from its own range and cutting the weight of its 70p mozzarella cheese pack from 270g to 240g.
And Quality Street tubs shrunk by 50g for Christnmas 2022, the first time in three years, from 650g to 600g. in the 1980s, the tubs were around 1.7kg.
But if manufacturers think shoppers don't notice they are wrong, with disgruntled customers often taking to social media to complain about shrinking packs. @SavantIdiom took to Twitter to say: "Shrinkflation is pretty shocking of late. I bought a pack of caramel chocolate digestives last week and they're almost down to the size of a Jaffa Cake...or rather, the size a Jaffa Cake used to be," while @IanIanchisnall said: "Shrinkflation at its worse. Multipacks of Frazzles now have only 6 bags in them not 8 and still cost 99p".
McVitie's, Penguin and Club's parent company, Pladis, said the content changes in response to external factors, including "inflationary pressures", adding: "Like many businesses, we continue to see an unprecedented rise in input costs."
Now read:
- McDonald's quietly axes £1.99 deal for delivery customers only
- Asda changes its Rewards loyalty app - and it's good news for shoppers
- Big energy switch off: Households reveal savings as low as 13p
- Newcastle Masterchef winner shares his tips and recipes for cooking on a budget
- The cost of living crisis puts TV rental back in the picture
