“Cheapflation” is the practice of reducing ingredients, removing them or replacing them with cheaper or lower quality substitutes while the selling price of the product increases.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Update
Reading time: 2 min
:quality(50)/2024/03/19/080-hl-rmilani-2309847-65f9877cc8811814771723.jpg)
Three major brands are once again highlighted by Foodwatch. They are accused of having modified the ingredients of their recipes and of having increased the price per kilo of their products without notifying consumers, the consumer defense association reported on Wednesday April 17. This time, it is cordon bleu, yogurts and minced hams whose price has increased by almost 25%, to the detriment of degraded quality.
In detail, Foodwatch highlights Le Gaulois chicken cordon bleu escalopes, which include -6.9% chicken meat and -40% Emmental cheese while the price per kilo, observed in E.Leclerc supermarkets, increased by 25% between 2022 and 2024. The association also highlights the 23% increase in the price per kilo, at Carrefour, of minced pans with Fleury Michon ham, while the quantity of pork ham in this product has decreased by 27%. Another food product affected by this practice: Skyr Siggi’s vanilla (Lactalis-Nestlé). The quantity of agave syrup has increased by 6% in these yogurts known to be fat-free and rich in protein. Between 2023 and 2024, taking into account inflation, the price per kilo of the product increased by 13% at Système U.
The accused brands defend themselves
The Le Gaulois group confirms the change in recipes for its chicken cordon bleus and highlights difficulties in supplying French poultry due to “of the avian flu which affected [ses] partner breeders”. But the group indicates that it has “took care to update the list of ingredients on the packaging”. For its part, Fleury Michon praises an improvement of “tenderness and taste of its product and emphasizes that the reduction in the quantity of pork ham “did not impact the nutritional values” of its product. Concerning the cost, Fleury Michon responded to Foodwatch in December that the “distributors are free to set their selling prices” and that its margins “remained very weak” for two years. At Siggi’s, the addition of sugar and vanilla is justified “to improve the organoleptic characteristics” and make your yogurt “softer”at the request of consumers.
Food prices, the main driver of inflation in 2023 with a peak of almost 16% in the spring, have since begun to slow down sharply, with an increase of 1.7% year-on-year in March 2024.
