Supermarkets came under fire in Parliament for not being more open with customers about “sneaky” shrinkflation and labelling of produce.
Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, grilled food minister Mark Spencer over why consumers are not being told when products are reduced in size and the price stays the same or even still goes up.
Highlighting research by consumer group Which?, he stressed at a meeting of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that around three quarters of customers believe shrinkflation is a “rip off” and should not be happening.
Mr Spencer responded that there are “different motivations” for such behaviour, including profit, market place positioning and public health.
But raising the concerns of shoppers, Mr Gardiner stressed: “What they object to principally is the fact that it is sneaky, the fact that it is done without them actually being told that it is being done.”
As people munch into a chocolate bar, they then discover that “it takes you a bite shorter to finish it,” he added, as it is smaller.
The clash came on Tuesday ahead of official figures showing inflation in Britain falling from 3.2 per cent in March to 2.3 per cent in April and as a Savanta poll for the Centre for London found that one in four Londoners say they could not afford to pay a surprise £50 bill in full without help.
Former environment minister Mr Gardiner stressed that research in France had found that over half of consumers believe that supermarkets should be telling them that some products are getting smaller, around a third said the manufacturers should be putting this on their goods, compared to nine per cent who believed it should be down to customers to work out.
“Why aren’t you doing anything about shrinkflation?” he asked Mr Spencer, calling for more transparency on labelling.
The minister stressed there was a “legal obligation” on manufacturers and retailers for the weight to be on products.
Committee chairman Sir Robert Goodwill intervened to say that even worse than “shrinkflation” was “skimpflation” where for example there is less beef in a beef lasagne or less chicken in a chicken ready meal which may be labelled “new improved recipe”.
Tins of baked beans, he added, might be the same weight but contain more sauce and less of the more expensive ingredient, beans.
Mr Spencer replied: “The question is, in a free market what is the role of government to intervene...”
But Mr Gardiner stressed that it was to “redress the balance of power” between manufacturers and customers, and supermarkets and farmers.
Mr Spencer insisted: “Ultimately, the consumer has that power to make those choices and we have seen a number of examples where consumer power has driven the market in a very robust...free range eggs is the best example of that.”
Andrew Opie, director of food & sustainability at the BRC (British Retail Consortium), said: “Retailers are doing everything they can to offer great value to their customers despite rising costs in the food supply chain.
“For branded goods - not produced by the food retailers themselves – changes to size and pricing are largely determined by the brands themselves, reflecting the costs of production they face.
“Prices and sizes of all products are clearly labelled so that customers can make informed decisions about their purchases.”
