Rossen Reports: Can you spot the 'skimpflation' food?
Prices at the grocery store are still at an all-time high, but you need to watch out for another way that you could be paying more for less quality.
Shrinkflation is when food or drink companies downsize their products, basically giving you less stuff for the same price. Now, there's a new phenomenon called skimpflation, where you pay the same amount for the same quantity, but there's been a change in the ingredients of the product.
Edgar Dworsky is the founder of ConsumerWorld.org. He맥스카지노s been tracking groceries for decades.
"Instead of raising the price or shrinking the product 맥스카지노 they decide to reformulate the product. Often with cheaper ingredients," Dworsky said.
Here are some real-life examples of skimpflation.
First up is Scott맥스카지노s famous 1,000-roll toilet paper.
"Well, they can맥스카지노t do much about downsizing the number of sheets. It맥스카지노s not going to be Scott맥스카지노s 857 all of the sudden. So what do they do? They probably made the sheets a little thinner, and people are complaining about that," Dworsky said.
To test, Dworsky weighed the toilet paper and found that the four-pack he bought years ago weighed 2 pounds, 0.2 ounces. The four-pack that's on shelves now weighs 1 pound, 7.6 ounces.
It's still 1,000 sheets, but a lot less toilet paper. Rossen Reports reached out to Scott맥스카지노s parent company Kimberly-Clark but didn맥스카지노t hear back.
Then, there's the Hungry-Man double chicken bowl.
It맥스카지노s the same meal, same size, and same overall weight -- but there맥스카지노s been a change. The old Hungry-Man dinner has 39 grams of protein.
But this new one on store shelves only has 33 grams. That맥스카지노s 15% less protein. Whether it's less chicken or an ingredient change is unclear.
When asked if skimpflation is a trick, Dworsky said, "It맥스카지노s absolutely a trick because there's almost no disclosure on the package that you맥스카지노re getting something different than what you used to get."
The next product is what Dworsky calls classic skimpflation.
While examining two packages of Smart Balance margarine side by side, one clear difference popped up. The previous version had 64% vegetable oils, while the new version only has 39%.
"They actually reduced the oil content and replaced it with water. So if you look at the ingredient statement, the old ingredient statement says vegetable oil is the number one ingredient," Dworsky said.
In the new version, water is the number one ingredient.
Conagra 맥스카지노 the parent company of Smart Balance and Hungry-Man 맥스카지노 didn맥스카지노t comment.
After hundreds of negative reviews about the new margarine, it said in its online response to one review, "We are working on getting the old formula back on shelf and consumers can expect to find their old formula on shelf late fall / early winter.맥스카지노
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