Good news: it will now be possible to know if the quantity of a product has decreased while its price has not. This is a promise from the Minister Delegate in charge of Consumer Affairs, Olivia Grégoire, interviewed by Ouest-France. The government will force supermarkets to put up a poster alerting consumers of a reduction in quantities of a product at unchanged prices. “ From July 1, when products (food or non-food for that matter) will be “shrinkflated” “, in other words will see their quantity decrease but not their prices, ” there will be a poster on the shelf for two months », indicated Olivia Grégoire in this interview posted online this Thursday, April 18 in the evening.
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On this poster, “ will be written: “for this product, the quantity sold increased from X to Y and its price per kilo, gram or liter increased by X% or €X” », elaborated the minister. The decree, “ signed on April 16 “, is actually ” on the Prime Minister's table ” And ” should be published » in the Official Journal (OJ) « in the coming days », assured Olivia Grégoire. Shrinkflation – from the English verb “shrink”, “to shrink” – consists, for manufacturers of consumer products, agro-industrialists or distributors, of reducing the quantities of products sold rather than increasing – too much – significantly the prices.
The distributor Carrefour, for example, had drastically reduced the quantities of its vegetables “ first prizes » to stay below the 1 euro mark, the magazine recalled in December 60 million consumers, evoking going from three to two salads or reducing the potato fillet by a third. “ If a decree comes out, we will respect it and apply it but we regret it », indicated in January the boss of the fourth French distributor, Système U, Dominique Schelcher.
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“ It is the industrialist who knows that his packaging has been reduced, that the recipe has been called into question “, he declared, fearing ” a waste of time » for in-store teams. Olivia Grégoire also indicated that she would like this obligation to fall, in the future, on manufacturers rather than on the distributor, and this, at the European level, on the occasion of a “ revision of the rules for consumer information on foodstuffs in Europe in 2025 “.
