Shrinkflation not a widespread issue, ONS data suggests

Fresh data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the true extent of so-called ‘shrinkflation’ on Monday, with food - and particularly, breakfast cereals and bread - the most likely products to be affected.

Shrinkflation refers to the manufacturer practice of reducing the amount of product contained in a package while maintaining the same price, as opposed to raising retail prices to combat rising costs.

The ONS said it had studied 17,000 prices between September 2015 and June 2017, and found 206 products had shrunk in size, while 79 increased.

After bread and cereals, where 36 cases of shrinkflation were identified, the next most likely categories were meat and confectionery.

But not all manufacturers were undertaking the practice, with 18 bread and cereal products and 13 meat products growing in size over the period.

Interestingly, there was one category where no products shrunk, and more products grew in size for the same price - tobacco.

The ONS data did suggest that shrinkflation was not as widespread an issue as it is sometimes made out to be, with between 1% and 2.1% of food products shrinking in 2016, while between 0.3% and 0.7% grew.