Food Shrinkage

I normally buy sugar at Costco because I do a bit of canning and 10lb bags, I should get more but I don't, make more sense to me.

But it's holiday season and I was low on sugar, and I do my darndest to avoid Costco from the week prior to Thanksgiving until after the New Year. I was shocked as I walked around Fresh Farms and only saw 4lb bags of sugar, I thought the default was 5lbs. I decided to hold off on my purchase until I got back in the city. Unfortunately, the default at Treasure Island was also 4 lb bags of sugar.

Then, I realized I was late in this realization, le sigh.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/busin ... d=all&_r=0

The one that galls me is yogurt. Us all shrunk to 6 oz, because, ostensibly, of the price of sugar. Ok,.so what about *plain* yogurt? Recipes call for a cup, six ounces just won't cut it.

I've noticed that some orange juice has very quietly gone from from 64-fluid ounce (half-gallon) containers to 59-fluid ounce containers. My guess is that by making this change, manufacturers were able to hold the price, while hoping consumers never noticed the shorter fill.

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Candy bars have been doing this for years. They quietly decrease the size and increase the price when sugar and chocolate prices are high. Then when the prices drop - they announce a "New" larger size, return to their original size and keep the price increase they snuck in earlier.

Most commercial ice creams dropped from half a gallon to 1.7 or 1.5 quarts about five years ago.

mamagotcha wrote:Most commercial ice creams dropped from half a gallon to 1.7 or 1.5 quarts about five years ago.

To make that even more annoying, ice cream is sold volumetrically, so if they can figure out a way to fluff more air into the mix during the production process, they can fill a larger container with the smaller amount of ice cream. Seems to me this is an item that should be sold by weight.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:

mamagotcha wrote:Most commercial ice creams dropped from half a gallon to 1.7 or 1.5 quarts about five years ago.

To make that even more annoying, ice cream is sold volumetrically, so if they can figure out a way to fluff more air into the mix during the production process, they can fill a larger container with the smaller amount of ice cream. Seems to me this is an item that should be sold by weight.

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I just noticed this yesterday. Not only was the container smaller, but it weighed next to nothing. Half the fat because it has half the ice cream! Curse you, overrun!

5lb bags of sugar were available at Walmart. I bought the 10 lb bag. It was their brand. I didn't look at the Domino's sugar to see what weight it was.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

mamagotcha wrote:Most commercial ice creams dropped from half a gallon to 1.7 or 1.5 quarts about five years ago.

To make that even more annoying, ice cream is sold volumetrically, so if they can figure out a way to fluff more air into the mix during the production process, they can fill a larger container with the smaller amount of ice cream. Seems to me this is an item that should be sold by weight.

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Yeah, but that would favor greasy, fatty ice creams, and would make ice creams more expensive all the way around. Ice creams need some overrun; sure many overdo it, but ice creams with too low overrrun can be pretty bad, too.

I had a recipe that needed a pint of half and half. I bought a quart because the 16-ounce size has shrunk to 14 ounces. Curses!

nr706 wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

mamagotcha wrote:Most commercial ice creams dropped from half a gallon to 1.7 or 1.5 quarts about five years ago.

To make that even more annoying, ice cream is sold volumetrically, so if they can figure out a way to fluff more air into the mix during the production process, they can fill a larger container with the smaller amount of ice cream. Seems to me this is an item that should be sold by weight.

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Yeah, but that would favor greasy, fatty ice creams, and would make ice creams more expensive all the way around. Ice creams need some overrun; sure many overdo it, but ice creams with too low overrrun can be pretty bad, too.

Nah, I don't think so. If you look at the most popular brands of premium ice creams on the market -- Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's -- you'll find that they contain the highest levels of fat. It's actually the lesser brands that are lower in fat and have more air whipped into them. Sometimes, every once in a while, more is actually more!

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ronnie_suburban wrote:

nr706 wrote:Yeah, but that would favor greasy, fatty ice creams, and would make ice creams more expensive all the way around. Ice creams need some overrun; sure many overdo it, but ice creams with too low overrrun can be pretty bad, too.

Nah, I don't think so. If you look at the most popular brands of premium ice creams on the market -- Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's -- you'll find that they contain the highest levels of fat. It's actually the lesser brands that are lower in fat and have more air whipped into them. Sometimes, every once in a while, more is actually more!

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Hey, I'm trying to figure out what "greasy, fatty" ice cream is. To be called "ice cream" the product needs at least 10% butterfat and can have in excess of 50% overrun (more air than solids). The super-premiums go to about 14% butterfat but with less than 50% overrun (more solids than air) and can go as dense as 2 parts solids to 1 part air.

The GP wrote:I had a recipe that needed a pint of half and half. I bought a quart because the 16-ounce size has shrunk to 14 ounces. Curses!

Well, the only upside to that is you can freeze the quart (try 1/2c amounts) if you don't need the rest right now & it will be just fine in any cooked dish, cereal, etc.

Hi- Almost all sugar comes in 4 lb. bags now.

The GP wrote:I had a recipe that needed a pint of half and half. I bought a quart because the 16-ounce size has shrunk to 14 ounces. Curses!

A pint is now 14 oz.?? Good lord, how ever will the children learn measurements properly now??

sdbond wrote:

The GP wrote:I had a recipe that needed a pint of half and half. I bought a quart because the 16-ounce size has shrunk to 14 ounces. Curses!

A pint is now 14 oz.?? Good lord, how ever will the children learn measurements properly now??

Don't they just look it up on their iphone?

Barilla's newest lines of pasta, White Fiber and Veggie have managed to shrink a box of pasta down to 12 oz.

There old "healthy lines" of Whole Grain and Plus had boxes in the 13.25 to 14 oz range depending on shape. I wouldn't be surpised if they phase these out once the new ones find their niche as they have done that with past products.

I'm not sure if their classic blue box lines have suffered similar reductions in weight.

Girl Scout Cookies (and their packages)seem to be much smaller than years past.

Here's a really good one: Cases of canned Coca Cola products used to be 24 ea 12 oz cans.

Not any more, though. Now they are packaged 20 cans to a case, so again, we get less product for the same money. I am astonished.