Are food portions getting smaller?
Smaller Portion Sizes Are Showing Up Across the Country
States with the highest reports of inflation in restaurants are South Dakota (up 170%), Kansas (111%), Arkansas (81%), Wisconsin (59%) and New Hampshire (56%).
In the United States, India, Britain and Japan, people are starting to see smaller containers and higher prices for food. The cost increases are affecting snack food, cheese, drinks, soaps and more. Economic experts say the changes in package sizes are a result of inflation. They call it “shrinkflation.”
It's not just a figment of your imagination—portions at U.S. restaurants are indeed getting smaller. Call it shrinkflation: when sizes shrink, but you're paying the same price, or sometimes even more, for the meal or product.
Meaning of shrinkflation in English
the situation when the price of a product stays the same but its size gets smaller: Shrinkflation is a cunning way of raising prices without actually raising the price of the product you are buying. Many products have been hit by shrinkflation.
But another consequence of sustained price rises is 'shrinkflation', a related term which describes the trend of products becoming smaller in response to rising production costs. In short, rather than increase the price some manufacturers are simply reducing the size of their products instead.
Farmers were able to grow food more cheaply by using fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides. In the 1970s, the government began subsidizing farmers to grow more food. Over time, companies have increased their serving sizes to increase their profits, and we all caught on.
From toilet paper to yogurt and coffee to corn chips, manufacturers are quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices. It's dubbed “shrinkflation,” and it's accelerating worldwide.
Prices for meals away from home have increased for nine consecutive months. Higher food prices during what has been a historic period of inflation has led to restaurants shrinking the portion sizes on some menu items. Some consumers have had to make tough choices about how to spend their money, as well.
Food manufacturing sales are projected to increase 7.4% in 2022, driven by: Historically strong disposable income and accumulated savings in 2021.
"The majority of size changes occurred in the food and drink sector. "Every day staples such as bread and cereal are most likely to have seen reductions in size, while consumers may also find some chocolate products to be smaller now than they once were.”
Why are serving sizes changing?
Some serving sizes have changed on the new Nutrition Facts label. By law, serving sizes must be based on the amount of food people typically consume, rather than how much they should consume. Serving sizes have been updated to reflect the amount people typically eat and drink today.
Because we consume more of certain foods and beverages than we used to, serving sizes have changed for many products. For example, the serving size for ice cream has increased by 33 percent, from a half-cup to two-thirds (2/3) of a cup.
Some cereal brands have recently reduced the contents of their family- and giant-sized boxes by more than 20%, and if shoppers are only looking at the size descriptors, they might miss that the actual size of the product is smaller. They might be smaller giants.
Cadbury has slashed the size of its family-size bars of Dairy Milk by 10% as the nation's favourite chocolate falls prey to “shrinkflation”.
In economics, shrinkflation, also known as the grocery shrink ray, deflation, or package downsizing, is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation.
For instance, if you buy a bag of Doritos, expect about five fewer chips. Frito-Lay reportedly confirmed that they dropped the weight of bags from 9.75 ounces to 9.25 ounces. "Inflation is hitting everyone," a spokesperson told Quartz.
Tuna cans have a shrinkage problem. 20 years ago, a can of tuna weighed in at 7 ounces. Nowadays you'd be hard-pressed to find one over 5.
Chocolate and candy packs are getting smaller due to 'shrinkflation' and candy companies reducing calorie counts. Standing in the center aisle of the drugstore, with its seasonal display of spooky bat decorations, vampire teeth and fun-sized bags of chocolate, don't be surprised if something seems off.
In fact, research has observed the average size of a sample of dinner plates increased almost 23%, from 9.6 inches to 11.8 inches, since 19001. This may not sound like much, but when each meal of each day is on a larger plate, we lose sight of what an appropriate portion size actually looks like.
Average dinner plates in the 1950's were 9” compared to todays 10 ½” or more. Our plates revert to the 9” portion size of the 1950's. The large rim makes the plate feel full with less on it. The general rule for how much water an individual should drink is 8x8, or 8 ounces 8 times a day.
Can the US feed its own population?
The United States imports only 20 percent of the food consumed, so it is actually not a huge number. The reason for this is that the U.S. is capable of producing a large variety of foods. It is extremely self-sufficient when it comes to food.
To be sure, consumers have already been spotting examples of “downsized” items on their grocery shelves — slimmed down toilet paper, fewer chips in a bag or less dish soap in a plastic bottle. Brands, responding to inflation and supply chain disruptions, are downsizing product packaging as a way to trim costs.
In the wake of the pandemic, the Ukraine war and Brexit, manufacturers of everything from chocolate to cheese have been facing surging input costs and shrinking their pack sizes to compensate.
Other Select Groceries
Food items that could be cheaper in 2022 include ice cream, potatoes, and canned fruit. Among the potentially cheaper items are refrigerated and frozen bakery products, whose index went down a seasonally adjusted 1.1% from October-November 2021, according to Consumer Price Index data.
McDonald's denies changes to burger sizes
"We are committed to offering our customers great quality, great value burgers featuring 100 per cent RSPCA Approved Chicken and 100 per cent Aussie beef," said the spokesperson.