3w ago

"Losing 50 ml for the same price": Canadians call out Classico pasta sauce shrinkflation

dailyhive.com "Losing 50 ml for the same price": Canadians call out Classico pasta sauce shrinkflation | Food & Drink

Last year, Canadians called out Kraft Dinner for shrinkflation, with packs becoming 25 grams lighter. Now, Classico pasta sauce has shrunk.

I noticed this after my latest SaveOn order and was going to post pictures, but here's a whole article about it.

Not only is the jar smaller, but they have added more water - aqua-flation!

38 comments

In the USA this also changed ingredients. It has less tomato in it.
- This to me is the real crime. If they shrink the portion I can always buy more, but if they mess with the recipe, then I can't get what I want for any price. 😕
  Aldi has killed a few things I like this way. They had some decent heat and serve chicken meals we really liked to keep on hand for nights neither of us feel like cooking dinner, but they messed with the ingredients so bad as to make them almost inedible for us. It's so frustrating seeing them still on the shelf at the store, but knowing I can't buy it because it's awful now.

The design change is always done to hide the other changes
- Fewer tomatoes and more tomato pastes/concentrates

There are better pasta sauces. Buy something else.
- There are, but the bottle was worth it. In the before time they would go on sale and it was cheaper to buy the sauce and use the jars for canning than to buy new jars.
  
  I have a set of eight of these that I use as my main drinking glasses.
- Make your own, it's not difficult, it just needs to cook for longer but tastes way better.
  My go-to:
  3 cloves garlic + full onion, finely chopped, into a pot to cook in butter, until translucent and slightly browned
  500g lean beef, until cooked
  1 can diced or crushed tomatoes (500g), add Italian spice, rosemary and a bit of salt (+ whatever spice you feel like), simmer for about 10 minutes
  Grate some parmesan, add lots of spinach, simmer for about 40 minutes
  Serve on large pasta or spaghetti squash au gratin with lots of aged cheddar on top.
  Takes an hour, but it's relatively low effort. Simmering is what takes the acidity out of tomatoes and makes it a sweet, meaty sauce.
  I've never typed it out until now, so feel free to point out anything I left out!
  Edit: spaghetti squash is cut in half, remove seeds, salt + pepper + olive oil the insides, stab the outside with a fork, face down on parchment paper, 400f for 40 minutes in the oven.
  When you scrape out the spaghetti squash with a fork, place it in a colander and squeeze the liquid out. This avoids your pasta meal from turning into a water soup.
  
  I like to add a little grated carrot or red wine to mine to balance the acid, but I tend to only cook mine for 20-30 minutes. I'll try longer without these ingredients, you might be on to something here.
- The only better sauces at the major supermarkets near me cost 3x a jar of Classico.

This is why I just make my own sauce. Takes about a half hour for two jars and costs less than a buck per jar. Only uses one pot, too.
And it tastes better.
- Hijacking this in case anyone is interested.
  Last year I went down a rabbit hole of trying to find the best canned tomatoes I could find in my area that didn't cost an absurd amount (the Italian imported ones from speciality Italian stores are excellent but very expensive). My conclusion is a little irritating.
  Alta Cucina tomatoes by Stanislaus (major commercial food supplier) we're by far the best I could find in terms of quality/taste, availability, and price.
  Bad news: these are designed for commercial use and only come in huge 28oz cans. So I usually open one , use a quarter of it, and freeze the rest.
  Good: Excellent taste. Perhaps not strictly "the best" whatever that means, but so good that it basically made me stop looking further.
  More good news: that 28oz can is only $10 at Costco Business Center, which comes to $2.50 ish per normal sized can, which makes it far cheaper than the other premium tomatoes I've seen.
  https://www.costcobusinesscentre.ca/alta-cucina-plum-tomatoes%2C-2.84-l.product.100347364.html
  If you live somewhere like California that itself grows high quality tomatoes then you probably have many other options. If like me you don't, then I hope this helps.
  
  Assisting in my own hijacking: Thanks for the tip, I’ve been using it expensive Italian ones.
  
  Whole tomatoes are better to buy canned they apparently keep the flavor better or something.
- Share your recipe please!
  
  Two 28oz cans of whole, peeled tomatoes, an onion, some garlic, fresh basil, oregano, and tarragon (about a tablespoon each), and salt and pepper.
  Sweat the onions until they're translucent, add the garlic, crush the tomatoes by hand, and then simmer with the rest of the ingredients until it smells like an Italian grandma's house.
  Also: You'll probably buy a lot more fresh herbs than you'll need, so portion and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and freeze them. Then you have them ready when you want some pasta sauce
  
  The simplest sauce you can make is still damn good:
  1 can whole peeled tomatoes
  1/2 yellow onion (literally just cut in half, no slicing needed)
  1 stick salted butter
  Cook slow and low, about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally, until the onion has completely disintegrated.
  It's not especially healthy but it's real tasty. Feel free to dress it up with some garlic, basil, meat, etc. in the last 15 minutes if you want.

Every time you find a soft tomato, put it in a bag in the freezer. When you have enough, make your own sauce and freeze that.
- A bunch of mine failed to ripen before the weather guy cold so I had a big harvest of green tomatoes.
  Found a recipe online for a green tomato relish, picked up a bunch of jars, and figured I'd give it a shot. I figured on my first go it wouldn't really turn out, but we're several jars in and even my kids - who actually don't like (red) tomatoes - specifically ask for it with burgers etc.
  
  Nice! Any chance you can share the recipe?
- Damn, now I've got to buy a $200 freezer to save $10 on spaghetti sauce.
  Do you know how many tomatos are required to make sauce? SO MANY
  
  Yeah. I’ve done it. Many times. One ziploc freezer bag style bag will make you a couple jars.
  Sorry you can’t afford a fridge/freezer combo, bro. It must be tough on an all-ramen diet.

Near the bottom of the article it shows some pictures of other brands following Kraft by dropping their Mac and cheese size to 200g. This is likely because they are packaged by the same factory using either a different box or a different box and cheaper ingredients.

Daily Hive contacted Kraft regarding the salad dressing size, but the company never responded to our queries.
You'd think a big company like Kraft Heinz would be able to answer consumer inquiries, especially awkward ones.
Maybe they need to be followed-up-upon, by all of us.

Just make sauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OEDjDKV038
- I think I just found my new favorite cooking channel
  
  Welcome Champion.
- I have always made mine but I understand most people don’t have the time. I do use a food processor which speeds things up.

Lol, virtually every American company does this on a regulated schedule and we just sit back and watch it.
- Same in Canada. The reason this is newsworthy is that people are pushing back.

Dang! I eat that brand.
- They changed formulation in the USA as well.

38 comments