In the last 10 years, packaging of dairy products on store shelves has decreased more than that of other products.

“Over the past seven to ten years, a small package of butter has steadily “lost weight” from 200 to 180, and then to 160 grams, a large one – from 400 to 340. There are 85 grams less of sour cream in plastic cups . – Before there were 400 and now the average is 350-315. Curd cheese has decreased from 50 grams to 45, 40 and so on,” said Alexander Rybin, deputy director of economics at the Dairy Union.

In his words, the packaging of liquid products has also decreased, including milk, fermented baked milk and others, but in the case of them “manufacturers often resort to cunning.” Since milk, for example, is denser than water, price labels often indicate the volume not in liters, but in kilograms, Rybin explained. He added that this kilogram, depending on the temperature of the milk and its fat content, “will not contain one liter, but 970 milliliters or even less.”

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A representative of the Russian Dairy Union linked the reduction in the weight of products with the increase in production costs, including rising prices for raw materials, rising wages and the cost of electricity, fuel and the team. According to Rybin, if the buyer is not satisfied with the price of the product, he will reject it: “The manufacturer, of course, does not want this, so he tries to keep prices at approximately the same level. [с конкурентами]while avoiding increased costs by reducing packaging.”

Dairy products are not the only product category susceptible to shrinkage (also called shrinking). For example, according to Roskachestvo in November 2023, fruit juice containers have decreased from 0.5 liters to 0.485 liters since 2013, and chocolate containers since 2015 have decreased from 90 grams to 82 grams.

At the end of October, the largest Russian supplier of aluminum cans, Arnest Packaging Solutions, refused to produce 0.5-liter containers because “they were not in demand from manufacturers,” the company’s press service told RBC. .