A visit to the grocery store in Poland now requires not solely a full pockets but in addition a magnifying glass to test the high quality print on the packaging.

Dad and mom tasked with wiping their kids’s runny noses this winter have been caught out by packets containing not 10, however eight tissues. The health-conscious have discovered their half-kilo tubs of kefir reduce to 420g. The well-known “Chook’s milk” chocolate field offered by native confectioner Wedel now incorporates simply 340g of the candy stuff, down from 360g in December.

With inflation at about 17 per cent — nearly double the eurozone common — retailers and meals producers in Poland are resorting to a apply as outdated as worth pressures to cover the rise in prices from their prospects.

That apply is “shrinkflation”, a phenomenon that entails skimping on the quantity — or high quality — of produce offered to customers, relatively than elevating the price of the merchandise itself. It’s a method that has been utilized by everybody from Roman emperors, who debased silver and gold cash with copper and different cheaper metals to finance their empire-building, to bakers within the Center Ages, who tried to stop bread riots by promoting smaller loaves.

In Poland, following a surge in producers’ vitality prices triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shopper items corporations have devised sneaky albeit authorized methods to cover the very fact they’re forcing their customers to pay the identical for much less. They’re reshaping bottles and tubs, thinning down cleansing sponges and decreasing the scale of their baggage of crisps.

Polish economist Rafał Mundry, who has been compiling a shrinkflation database for the previous 4 years, described it as “the shadow aspect of inflation that many individuals sadly don’t discover or don’t even ever take into consideration”. With inflation at a 25-year excessive, Mundry stated packaging was being modified “on a scale I’ve by no means seen earlier than”.

As in lots of different international locations, Poland’s statistics workplace calculates inflation by specializing in the price of objects based mostly on their precise weight relatively than the format during which they’re offered. If a confectioner cuts the quantity of chocolate in every of their bars, this may present up within the statistics. But these cuts will not be noticed by customers doing their weekly store.

Katarzyna Bosacka, a meals and shopper affairs pundit, is urging prospects to spend extra time studying not solely the value tags however the labels as effectively. “I can solely say one factor: every little thing is larger in Texas, every little thing is getting smaller in shops in Poland,” she stated.

“It’s a query of behavior,” stated Mundry. “Once we purchase our cheese, we all know completely effectively that it may be packaged in all types of sizes, so we really take a look at whether or not it weighs half a kilo, 250g, 150g or 100g.”

Shopper items producers argue that they’ve little alternative however to depend on prospects’ reluctance to not test acquainted objects as their manufacturing prices have soared by 30 to 40 per cent on the again of upper inflation.

Paweł Bajorek, regional director of UK shopper items firm Reckitt Benckiser, stated: “You can’t simply improve costs that a lot in a single shot.”

Amongst its flagship merchandise on sale in Poland, Reckitt is now promoting its End dishwasher detergent in batches of 46 tablets, down from 50. Bajorek additionally famous that repackaging had logistical challenges and limitations, as corporations wanted to alter the licensed bar code on every new packaging. “The unhealthy message for customers is that there’ll most likely be extra worth will increase,” Bajorek stated, including that these could be launched regularly over the approaching months.

In some instances, hovering manufacturing prices are additionally getting handed on to customers through the use of cheaper substances — one thing that’s even more durable for each customers and statisticians to trace.

Mundry has discovered extra palm oil in his butter, much less fluoride in his mouthwash and extra glucose syrup being substituted for sugar in his confectionery. In nearly each case, he stated, the change had been so refined that he needed to examine new labels with older ones to establish it.

He principally outlets at Biedronka, one of many greatest grocery store chains in Poland, however he has discovered comparable points in different shops. Katarzyna Grabarna, model improvement supervisor at Biedronka, stated that altering the load or content material of own-brand merchandise was not “our focus on the subject of on the lookout for financial savings”.

As a substitute, she stated, Biedronka was prioritising decreasing the plastic in its packaging and bettering bulk packaging and deliveries. Biedronka’s packaging alterations meant it diminished its use of plastic by 600 tonnes final 12 months.

Nonetheless, Mundry worries in regards to the high quality of what folks now purchase in inflation-hit Poland.

“It’s very stunning to me how the substances in some merchandise have just lately been modified, sadly by no means for the higher and typically for a lot worse when it comes to our well being,” he stated.