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Premieres 28 October 2026 at 6pm UK time
Who's Tricking You? · Episode 4
Why does your chocolate bar feel lighter?
Same price. Same packet. A little less inside.
Shrinkflation: the triangular chocolate bar that grew gaps between its peaks, the 2,500-plus products the ONS found had shrunk in five years, and the shelf-label number that can't hide.
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What the fox said
Why does your chocolate bar feel lighter, when the price hasn't moved?
Because the trick isn't on the price tag. It's on the scales.
They call it shrinkflation. Same price. Same packet. A little less inside.
In 2016, a famous triangular chocolate bar sold in Britain was reported to shrink, from one hundred and seventy grams to one hundred and fifty.
How? They widened the gaps between the peaks. Same price.
The maker blamed rising ingredient costs. Shoppers noticed anyway.
Two years later the gaps were gone. The bar came back bigger, and reportedly dearer.
In 2017, the Office for National Statistics counted over two and a half thousand products that had shrunk in five years.
Mostly food. Chocolate, coffee, fruit juice. Even toilet rolls.
Why does it work? Because most of us remember prices. Hardly anyone remembers weights.
So check the shelf label. In larger British shops it must show a unit price, per kilo or per hundred grams. That number can't hide.
When the price stands still, check whether the packet has gone on a diet. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- In November 2016 Toblerone bars in the UK were made lighter by widening the gaps between the peaks: the 170 g bar became 150 g and the 400 g bar 360 g, at the same price, with the maker citing higher ingredient costs (Associated Press, 'Thin peaks: Britons grumble as Toblerone chocolate shrinks', November 2016; ConfectioneryNews, 2018).
- In July 2018 the maker announced a return to the original shape at 200 g, at what was reported to be a higher price (ConfectioneryNews; Confectionery Production; Quartz, 2018).
- The Office for National Statistics found 2,529 products shrank between January 2012 and June 2017, 2,006 of them food, while 614 got bigger (ONS, 'The impact of shrinkflation on CPIH, UK', July 2017; BBC News, 25 July 2017).
- Under the Price Marking Order 2004, larger shops must show a unit price, such as the price per 100 g, on shelf labels, with reforms in force from 6 April 2026 (Price Marking Order 2004, SI 2004/102, legislation.gov.uk; Mishcon de Reya).
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