Have food companies found a way to make more money? Although by law, companies must inform all consumers about changes in packaging, product quantities, and even changes to the recipe on the packaging, do we really see the fine print?
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Shaul, a Haredi boarding school owner, noticed during his recent shopping that changes had been made to the contents of the products, but not to the prices. In a conversation with Golan Yochpaz and Anat Davidov on 103fm, he recounted his experience.
""I am the owner of a Haredi boarding school that treats at-risk youth," he explained. "I do a lot of shopping. At least twice a week I make a large purchase of 1,500 NIS and I always shop at the same place. They have large packages and a variety of brands. For a while now, I've noticed that the packages are always small.
""When I see 'same flavor in new packaging,' 'new recipe,' 'same flavor in new design,' then I say there's something to be suspicious about. Usually, they reduce the quantity and do something somewhere that's not really in the best interest of consumers.".
According to the Consumer Protection Law, food companies are required to write on the product the weight, product content, weight after filtering, and a number of other things that are supposed to maintain the company's fairness to the consumer.
According to Shaul, it is a small inscription that is easy to miss.
""I notice all these changes," he said, giving examples from the field. "'Doritos' that were 100 grams, suddenly I see them as 70 grams - that's 30 percent, that's crazy and the price is the same. I see it in a lot of things. I noticed that in the last two months, instead of 100 in the package, the tissue that everyone knows has 90 and the price remains the same. I'm constantly looking for somewhere to lower it.
""Part of my job is to save for the place I work, so I look at the time, these things drive me crazy. The quantities are constantly decreasing," emphasized Shaul.
Continuing the conversation, Shaul addressed the change that the 'Click' chocolate bar has undergone: "It's an old story, but the Click a few years ago was 100 grams, dropped to 90 and now it's 65 grams. The price hasn't dropped and it's stayed exactly the same. Nobody looks at these things, people look at the package, not the grams. Reasonable consumers who are making a purchase for their home don't look at these things.".
The Strauss Group responded: ""Doritos products come in 70-gram packages. Specifically, this product was increased to 100 grams about a year ago, but recently it was decided to return it to 70 grams like the other products in the category. The price of the product is the same as the price of the other 70-gram products. That is, the price of the product decreased in accordance with weight loss without any exercises.".
Unilever Israel responded: ""This is a change we made in 2019. We communicated it widely to all customers, consumers, and the media, and it appeared clearly on the front of the package.".
Later in the program, Anat Davidov and Golan Yochpaz sought to understand more about the product and packaging affair, and spoke with Attorney Hadas Yacobson, Director of Regulation at the Israeli Consumer Council, and with Esther and Etori, leaders of the consumer protest "The Baby Protest.".
