{"id":507734,"date":"2026-06-19T10:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507734\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:05:11","slug":"shrinkflation-why-your-cadburys-bar-is-smaller-than-it-used-to-be-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507734\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shrinkflation\u2019: Why your Cadbury\u2019s bar is smaller than it used to be \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have Cadbury\u2019s chocolate bars <\/a>become smaller and is this shrinkflation? <\/p>\n

Irish consumers are well aware of inflation each time a supermarket trolley of grocery shopping <\/a>is scanned at the till. <\/p>\n

Groceries now cost 5 per cent more than they did this time last year, according to figures from Worldpanel by Numerator released in June of 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Inflation can be described as a decrease in the purchasing power of your money, resulting in consumers spending more to get the same goods or services.<\/p>\n

But what is shrinkflation \u2013 inflation\u2019s sneaky younger brother? <\/p>\n

Shrinkflation is when a company creates the same product, sells it at the same price, but reduces its size. <\/p>\n

Consider a bar of Cadbury\u2019s Dairy Milk, one of the most beloved sweet treats countrywide<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In a food label series carried out by The Irish Times in 2018<\/a>, the 2018 bar here weighed 55g versus 2026\u2019s 53g.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, we know that its UK counterpart was reduced from 49g to 45g in 2012. In the same year, the company\u2019s 200g bar was cut to 180g in the UK as well. <\/p>\n

While the standard Dairy Milk weighs more in this State, the next size up is considerably lighter than the UK\u2019s product, at 110g. <\/p>\n

But a statement from Mondel\u0113z International, which owns Cadbury, said: \u201cWe can confirm that Ireland\u2019s most popular chocolate bar, the 53g Cadbury Dairy Milk has not been reduced in weight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mondel\u0113z added that its wholesale chocolate prices have soared<\/a> in recent years on foot of supply disruptions linked to the climate crisis damaging crops in west Africa, the source of most of the world\u2019s cocoa. <\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, chocolate <\/a>inflation has reached dizzying heights, with Eurostat reporting a 17.9 per cent increase in the cost of chocolate in the EU in 2025. <\/p>\n

Referring to the soaring cost of chocolate, the company said: \u201cAs a food producer, we are continuing to experience higher input costs across our supply chain, with ingredients <\/a>such as cocoa and dairy costing far more than they have done previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company said that reducing product sizes \u201cis a last resort for our business\u201d. However, they acknowledged that they have made some reductions to Cadbury\u2019s products in recent years. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of this difficult environment, we have had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of some of our Cadbury products over a number of years so that we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have Cadbury\u2019s chocolate bars become smaller and is this shrinkflation? Irish consumers are well aware of inflation each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,216955,31413,64500,61,60],"class_list":["post-507734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-chocolatey-clare","tag-food-safety-authority-of-ireland","tag-food-month","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}