Recently, there has been a lot of talk and writing about the concept of “shrinkflation”, i.e. when companies reduce their packaging or food but continue to charge the same, or higher, price for the product
Arlas Bregott is, among other products, accused of using shrink inflation. When you looked more closely at the price per kilo, it did not appear to be shrinking inflation. But that can come and change.
— We have to wait and see how it turns out when price competition sets in and the chains start looking at each other, said Ulf Mazur to TT.
The new Bregott boxes are cheaper than before – despite that, customers are raving
“Cheapflation” among several companies
A new concept, for almost the same thing, that is circulating right now is “cheapflation”, so-called “stingy inflation”. It is instead about companies replacing the content of their food with something equivalent, but cheaper.
Cheapflation means that the quality of the food lasts longer, as it has been topped up with car stock things. It occurs to an increasing extent in Europe, which Swedish EPN was the first to report on.
After Eight has got a new recipe
A food that changed its content recently is Nestlé’s popular mint chocolate After Eight.
They have started filling the popular treat with palm oil. An oil that is a significantly cheaper alternative, compared to other oils.
But even if palm oil is cheaper, it is much worse for both the body and the environment.
Photo: Simon Rehnström/SvD/TTGalen price increase for cocoa
In connection with the declining quality of candies with completed recipes, the price of chocolate continues to soar.
– The crazy price increase after the New Year for cocoa beans, with the highest cocoa prices in at least 50 years, will have little effect on chocolate prices going forward. There is a risk that chocolate will become a luxury item. What could soften the effect would be if the crown were strengthened considerably. The enormous price increase in cocoa is mainly due to speculation in the raw material cocoa, where it is believed that supply will continue to decrease in West Africa and that continued high demand will result in a remaining high cocoa price, said Ulf Mazur in food price check, earlier in March.
Customers should read the packaging
But Nestlé is not the only company that changed its content in some foods.
Even Marabou’s dark chocolate xl cookies, for example, have changed the recipe and gone from being vegan cookies to being filled with skimmed milk powder.
And among frozen fish products, you can also see that a “stingy inflation” has begun. So now it’s up to customers to read the packaging to see if the recipe has changed.
– The consumer simply does not have the time, opportunity, and perhaps not even the knowledge to be on guard and check how the products change. If we are talking about product development, the aim of product development should be that the products become better in quality, not the other way around, says Hannele Kauphine Räisänen, docent in consumer research to Swedish EPN.
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