Some food companies shrink packages, but not their prices

Like many supermarket shoppers, Kristi Caviglia didn't realize that lots of food products are shrinking.

At a Save Mart recently, she reached for a jar of Skippy Natural peanut butter. Her jar was 15 ounces, smaller than the other types of Skippy packed into 16.3-ounce jars. Both were on sale for $2.29 -- making Skippy Natural more expensive than the others.

"I didn't notice that," Caviglia said.

Some food manufacturers may prefer it that way. As costs of food and fuel rise, these companies face a choice: slap higher price tags on their existing packages or shrink their boxes, jars, cartons and bags -- and the amount of food inside -- to stay at a lower price.

Both methods force customers to spend more money for what they get, but the latter is less obvious.

A quick glance at mayonnaise jars, for example, didn't reveal size differences. But the labels show that Best Foods is sold in 30-ounce jars, slightly smaller than the standard 32-ounce (1-quart) containers.

Rising costs for food, manufacturing and transportation prompted Unilever, parent company of Best Foods, to change the size of mayonnaise jars, company spokesman Dean Mastrojohn wrote in an e-mail.

"We have chosen to reduce package sizes as one of our responses to these dramatic input cost increases," Mastrojohn said.

A look at the changes

A walk through Save Mart showed other changes. In the ice cream aisle, the 1.75-quart cartons are giving way to ones that contain 1.5 quarts.

Breyers still had both types of containers on grocery shelves; both were $4.99.

In the juice section, gone were the 96-ounce jugs of Tropicana orange juice. Instead, their $5.59 replacements contain 89 ounces.

To see what the old container looked like, go to mouseprint.org, a Web site devoted to "exposing the strings and catches buried in the fine print." The list goes on at consumerist.com, a Web site that posts examples of what it calls the "grocery shrink ray." One of its Web pages features a picture of Cocoa Krispies, along with a link to an Associated Press story about Kellogg Co.'s smaller cereal boxes.

In June, a Kellogg spokeswoman confirmed that Cocoa Krispies, Froot Loops, Corn Pops and other cereals now are sold in slightly smaller boxes.

What to look for

There are other ways manufacturers change packaging, says Lee Perkins, president of Pacific Grain and Foods, a Fresno dry-foods wholesaler, packager and bulk supplier to the food service industry.

Bottoms of containers used to be flat, but many of them are now dimpled, he says. Containers with compartments have thicker walls dividing each section. And "some of them will switch to grams instead of ounces" on their labels, Perkins says.

Given these changes, what's a cost-conscious shopper to do?

"Check different brands and their unit prices," Perkins says.

Be wary of sale prices. Because of different bag sizes, that bag of potato chips on sale for $3.25 may be more expensive per unit than the one selling for $3.95.

While shopping, he advises carrying a calculator as well as a table that converts grams to ounces. Go to Web sites such as metric-conversions.org for a copy. And check prices on the bottom shelves at the supermarket. The items on lower shelves, away from eye level, tend to be the cheapest, Perkins says.

Also, save receipts and develop a keen eye for any alterations in packaging of your favorite foods. If the containers have changed, compare prices for the new packages to ones listed on old receipts.

Whom to call

And if the changes seem like false advertising, call the local weights and measures agency.

In Stanislaus County, it's Dan Bernaciak in the weights and measures division of the Department of Agriculture. He can be reached at 525-4730. This office, along with the Division of Measurement Standards of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, checks out consumer complaints about a wide range of products.

They'll do everything from count strands of Christmas tree tinsel in a package to investigate sale prices "to make sure that people are charging correctly," says Sherry Estabrooks, a senior special investigator in the state's Division of Measurement Standards.