16 Popular Groceries That Have Been Hit By Shrinkflation

If you tink that some of your favorite packaged foods have gotten smaller recently, you are not imagining things. You might be experiencing shrinkflation, where brands shrink product size while keeping prices static to save money. The shrinkflation problem arises whenever inflation is high.

About half of consumers are aware of or worried about it. The percentage might be higher if businesses didn't take creative measures to hide these changes. While some brands shrink their product packaging, creating a visible change, others take a more deceptive route. This includes changing ingredients, flashy redesigns, and finding other ways to hide the truth: providing less food for the same price.

Some companies justify their actions. A few openly discuss the pressure of rising costs, but others blame reformulation or even climate change. With businesses feeling the pinch of inflation, we believe it's unlikely that portions or packages will grow. However, eagle-eyed shoppers may be able to avoid some of the most common examples, even if prices don't come back down.

Hershey's found a simple way to cut costs by reducing the size of one of the most popular candies in America, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The two-pack has shrunk from 1.6 ounces down to 1.5. While some articles made this seem like a recent change, it was first reported in 2011. It's hard to notice a few ounces gone while you're gobbling down that chocolate and peanut butter goodness.

Since the 1.5-ounce candy is still available, we think it could be worse. It's also true that Reese's is available in many sizes, including Minis, Miniature Cups, Thins, Snack Size, the classic Peanut Butter Cups, Big Cups, and Thank You Cups.

With the recent launch of its Big Cup with Caramel Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, coming in at 1.4 ounces for just one cup, we are happy to report Hershey's has not been hit by shrinkflation again but we remain vigilant.

Cereals are often a target of shrinkflation. General Mills downsized its Family Size cereal boxes for brands such as Cocoa Puffs and Cheerios. Cocoa Puffs now come in at 18.1 ounces, instead of 19.3, one less bowl per box.

But even worse, the company changed the box shape of cereal lines like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Juggling sizing standards is a popular tactic to hide smaller-sized portions. The cereal only dropped from 19.3 to 18.8 ounces, but its new Family Size is priced the same as what was formerly called Large Size, except with less cereal. 

When asked about shrinkflation, Kelsey Roemhildt, a General Mills spokesperson said, "General Mills has been working to create consistency and standardization across our cereal products, making it easier for shoppers to distinguish between sizes on the shelf." She also said this helps with transportation efficiency, reducing fuel usage, which is good for sustainability.

It still sounds like GM is trying to save money with a trend that has caught on with other cereal brands too. Post reduced its Family Size Cocoa Pebbles by an ounce. Quaker Life shrunk their boxed cereal down to 22.3 ounces from 24.8 and switched the size from Giant to Family.

Frito-Lay also came clean about reducing the bag size of a snack favorite, in this case, Doritos. It openly admits it made the changes thanks to inflation caused by the pandemic. A spokesperson for the company told Quartz.com, "We took just a little bit out of the bag so we can give you the same price and you can keep enjoying your chips."

Bag size has dropped from 9.75 ounces to 9.25 ounces, or five fewer chips per bag. That doesn't sound too bad unless you're down at the bottom of the bag.

Snack bag size changes affect more than just Doritos. Sizes dropped by half an ounce for Lay's Potato Chips (including different varieties), Ruffles, and Tostitos.

While we wish there were a more formal response, we know that Frito Lay did experience challenges due to the pandemic. From 2020 to 2022, the brand dealt with labor shortages that created product shortages, likely causing the change.

Back in 2008, Skippy Peanut Butter reduced its jar size from 18 ounces to 16.3 ounces, even though the jar looks exactly the same. That's three whole tablespoons of nutty goodness now missing. So, how did Skippy manage it?

Once again, the secret boils down to the redesign. When you turn the jar over, you'll notice an indent in the bottom that didn't exist on the original jar.

At that time, Skippy's parent company, Unilever, blamed inflation, citing rising costs of oil, transportation, manufacturing, and commodities in general. A spokesperson also mentioned product reformulation, so we thought it worthwhile to investigate. We could not find evidence of any reported reformulation on Skippy's website or through a web search.

That said, we can't promise you won't see future shrinkflation from this brand. We will warn you that Skippy's Natural Creamy Peanut Butter line, while containing less processed ingredients, sells in a 15-ounce jar.

Famous as the British alternative to Hershey, Cadbury also cleverly shrunk the size of its milk chocolate candy by redesigning it. Back in 2013, Cadbury changed the shape of its bars by rounding off the edges. There was immediate backlash since the bars were four grams smaller in size. But Cadbury stood by its decision, claiming that rounded chocolates taste better because they melt in the mouth differently.

The company reappeared in shrinkflation news in 2016, when it changed the distance between peaks in its Toblerone candy bar. This reduced the size of the chocolate bar by 50 grams while keeping prices steady. However, the company changed it back to its previous size two years later, either due to reduced costs of manufacturing, consumer backlash, or both.

Today, Cadbury is at it again with another change: shrinking the size of its multipack chocolate bars while individual bars will remain the same. Cadbury executives claim that the change is part of an effort to fight obesity, rather than inflation. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us, especially since prices remain the same. However, with this excuse, the company has no good reason to return bars to their former size.

Before reviewing the shrinkflation allegations, we must address Folger Coffee's multiple lawsuits for false advertising, which claims that the cans do not produce the number of cups cited on the label. Folger's response? The label reads "up to" the number of cups, so a can may come up a few cups shy.

In the most recent lawsuit, the plaintiff alleged that of all the Folgers varieties (42 in total), most only produced 70% of the label's claim — quite a reduction. However, given its prior victories, Folgers and its parent company seem unworried.

Did the can itself shrink? The popular canned coffee brand dropped from 51 ounces to 43.5 recently. Folgers claims there's a good reason for this: it uses lightweight beans. However, we could not find any information about new coffee beans on its website.

The company also claims that you can still get 400 cups — or rather, up to 400 cups from it. Just be sure to use a small mug.

This product didn't exactly downsize. Instead, the company removed the plastic shaker bags in 2022 to be more sustainable. The brand, owned by The Kraft Heinz Company, has never sold this product without bags. However, it dived right in, making the change across all its lines and encouraging consumers to use their own containers. This move eliminates a whopping 900,000 pounds of plastic waste.

Reducing that much plastic is a good thing, but we wondered how consumers would react to the missing bags. Many are not pleased and accuse the company of shrinkflation. One customer even claimed she resorted to Ziploc plastic bags, which isn't saving any plastic.

Other consumers have dropped the product altogether, opting to create their own custom seasonings blend. Will this make Shake 'N Bake obsolete? Time will tell but we wouldn't be surprised if the brand does a bit more work reinventing itself.

The hits on snack foods keep coming, with several popular cracker brands shrinking in size. First up: Wheat Thins. The Family Size box for this popular snack item was reduced from 16 ounces down to 14, resulting in a loss of about 28 crackers. That deep cut doesn't even account for broken crackers.

Another cracker brand following this route is Breton. Its box size went from 8.8 ounces down to 7 for Original and Sesame flavors, and 7.3 for its Multigrain Cracker. We did a little math and estimate that equals a loss of roughly 9 or 10 crackers per package.

Finally, Ritz Crackers have been downsized a few times. Its products started out in a one-pound box. It downsized to 15.1 ounces, then 13.7 ounces by 2013. The good news is that so far, box sizes have not changed but as we see, shrinkflation can happen at any time. Savvy shoppers should keep their eyes open for changes like this.