setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.caM to Shrinkflation@lemmy.ca · 9 months ago

Food with artificial sweeteners tastes bitter and unsweetened?

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Food with artificial sweeteners tastes bitter and unsweetened?

setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.caM to Shrinkflation@lemmy.ca · 9 months ago

Today’s culprit is… Jello’s Chocolate Pudding! Oh wait, no, “pudding snacks”, whatever in the label-regulation-dodging fuck that means.

Posting here because this has quickly become a very common shrinkflation tactic where the manufacturer substitutes fructose/sucrose in their main product with the cheaper aspartame and stevia and calls it “healthy”. There is no sucrose-only version of this product anymore.

However, these shrinkflated products taste bitter, unsweetened and are completely unappetizing to me. So I end up having to look at labels very carefully (usually some thin text at the bottom of the label) to make sure they didn’t sneak in some artificial sweetener.

The strangest part is I haven’t seen or heard of anyone complaining about it, are we in the minority of people for who artificial sweeteners are bitter, like Cilantro that tastes like soap? Both me and my partner find it bitter and unappetizing in any product, but only I have the “cilantro gene”.

I did find these articles on the topic:

https://www.phillymag.com/be-well-philly/2013/08/22/study-fake-sweeteners-taste-disgusting-people/ (the source link is dead, here’s a wayback machine link: https://web.archive.org/web/20130826013630/http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/why-fake-sweeteners-can-taste-funky/)

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120531102334.htm

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9 months ago

My husband finds artificial sweeteners bitter as well, including stevia. I don’t. I wouldn’t doubt if there’s something genetic at play.

I was just speculating about this in another comment. I’ve got one of those “bitter super-taster” genes and I definitely have the same hunch

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A community about companies who sneakily adjust their product instead of the price in the hopes that consumers won’t notice.

We notice. We feel ripped off. Let’s call out those products so we can shop better.

What is Shrinkflation?

Shrinkflation is a term often coined to refer to a product reducing in size or quality while the price remains the same or increases.

Companies will often claim that this is necessary due to inflation, although this is rarely the case. Over the course of the pandemic, they have learned that they can mark up inelastic goods, which are goods with an intangible demand, such as food, as much as they want, and consumers will have no choice but to purchase it anyway because they are necessities.

From Wikipedia:

In economics, shrinkflation, also known as the grocery shrink ray, deflation, or package downsizing, is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation.

[…]

Consumer advocates are critical of shrinkflation because it has the effect of reducing product value by “stealth”. The reduction in pack size is sufficiently small as not to be immediately obvious to regular consumers. An unchanged price means that consumers are not alerted to the higher unit price. The practice adversely affects consumers’ ability to make informed buying choices. Consumers have been found to be deterred more by rises in prices than by reductions in pack sizes. Suppliers and retailers have been called upon to be upfront with customers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation

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Posts must be about shrinkflation, skimpflation or another related topic where a company has reduced their offering without reducing the price.
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