Shrinkflation eases but manufacturers turn sneaky, watchdog says

Shrinkflation is happening less often than a few years ago, but manufacturers are getting better at hiding it, consumer body the Consumentenbond has found in its latest sweep of Dutch supermarket shelves.

The organisation again found dozens of products whose contents had shrunk without a matching drop in price, and received fewer reports from shoppers than in previous years. But a hard core of producers are now shrinking packs so quietly that customers don’t notice.

The clearest example is Blue Band Vloeibaar, the liquid baking product, which dropped from 750 to 700 millilitres in March 2026 while the bottle and front label stayed exactly the same.

The new volume appears only in small print on the side, and the pack is still described as a “voordeelfles”, or value bottle. The recommended price held at €3.65, so shoppers pay more per millilitre either way.

Shrunk more than once
Some products have now been reduced two or three times over. Andrélon conditioner went from 300 to 250 and then to 200ml; on the last step the price rose from €5.49 to €6.49, a 48% increase per 100ml.

A bag of M&M’s, which held 440 grams in 2020, now contains 363 grams, leaving consumers paying about 10% more per 100 grams.

Manufacturers mostly blamed higher costs for packaging, raw materials, energy and transport. Mars, which makes M&M’s, pointed to recently changed rules it said might bar producers from sharing recommended prices – but, the watchdog said, as far as it could tell no such change had taken place.

Consumentenbond director Sandra Molenaar called on politicians to act. “When there is more in a pack, manufacturers shout it from the rooftops,” she said, “but when the contents shrink, they only adjust it quietly on the back.”

She wants producers required to state a reduction clearly on the pack, or supermarkets made to flag it at the shelf, as is already the law in France.