Supermarkets and leading food manufacturers have reduced the size of dozens of products without cutting prices, an investigation by The Times has found. In an effort to beat the recession, the newspaper said that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Ocado are selling smaller portions of popular brands, including biscuits, beer, crisps and ice cream. However, prices have remained the same and, in some cases, the cost has increased while the packet size has shrunk.

Jonny Steel, spokesman for mysupermarket.co.uk, the grocery shopping and comparison site that conducted the research for The Times is quoted as saying, “Food manufacturers are trying to help consumers by reducing the frequency of price increases, but unfortunately they are sometimes doing this by downsizing their products. This leaves shoppers paying the same amount of money as they were before the pack revamp, while getting less in return.

“At a time when hard-working families are struggling to pay their bills, buyers should shop around and be aware of this practice.”

Pampers, Birds Eye, Terry’s, Green & Black’s, Nestlé and Coors are among the big name brands that have reduced the weight of some of their products over the summer. Some supermarkets have also changed their own brand packet sizes.

Read the full report on The Times website

NamNews - Monday 19th October 2009

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