From Ruffles ham potatoes to Lidl chicken wings, Facua detects 14 products with less content and more expensive than a year ago

A study by the Facua-Consumidores en Acción association has detected fourteen food products with reduflation, that is, a smaller quantity of product at a price equal to or even higher than what they had a year ago.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
01 February 2023 Wednesday 14:45
20 Reads
From Ruffles ham potatoes to Lidl chicken wings, Facua detects 14 products with less content and more expensive than a year ago

A study by the Facua-Consumidores en Acción association has detected fourteen food products with reduflation, that is, a smaller quantity of product at a price equal to or even higher than what they had a year ago. In these cases, unit prices have been compared, so the percentage increases collected are actually lower than the real ones, that is, what the price comparison per kilo or per liter would represent.

Among these products with reduflation, the Carrefour ham-flavored Ruffles potatoes stand out, which in January 2022 contained 295 grams and now 275 g, and which have also increased in price by 31.1%. Also Eroski's Nestlé Fitness cereals, which increased in price by 11% despite reducing the product from 450 grams to 375 g. The same is the case with Eroski's Sanex gel, which has gone from containing 600 milliliters to 550 ml, also increasing in price by 10.9%.

Aldi's gourmet loaf of bread with olive oil has gone from weighing 300 grams to 260 g, although its price has increased by 33.7% in the last year. Something similar happens with the village loaf, also from Aldi, which in January 2022 weighed 600 grams and now weighs 500 g, being 10.0% more expensive, although in reality the increase is greater if the price evolution is compared. per kilo.

The list of the fourteen products detected with reduction is completed by hake fillets, taco pork ribs and split chicken wings from Lidl; Eroski's Wipp blue gel; the homemade Calvé mayonnaise from the Mas Supermarket; chicken chips The Aldi Market; Alcampo's pocket handkerchiefs; and the Schweppes tonic and honey from Granja San Francisco de Hipercor.

Apart from products with reduflation, four out of ten foods analyzed by Facua-Consumers in Action have raised prices by more than 30% in one year, which shows, according to the organization, the need for the Government to set maximum prices on basic foods.

"It is evident that the drop in VAT on some products has had an extraordinarily slight effect on the shopping cart given the brutal increase in prices that has occurred in the last year," Facua warned.

Specifically, the consumer organization has monitored the evolution of 507 prices in nine supermarket and hypermarket chains between January 2022 and the same month this year.

The nine supermarkets and hypermarkets under study are Dia, Hipercor, Alcampo, Aldi, Lidl, Eroski, Carrefour, El Jamón and Mas. Mercadona has not been included among them since this company does not publish price catalogues.

In global terms, the average rise in prices in the last year in these establishments has been 24.2%, a percentage that rises to 29.2% if the comparison is made taking into account the prices on offer that the products in January 2022 or January 2023.

According to the law, to show a product with a price reduction offer, the lowest amount that would have been applied to identical products in the preceding 30 days must appear next to it.

The highest average increase in the twenty oil prices analyzed was 47.4%, followed by milk and dairy products (49 products) with an increase of 34%.

For their part, meat and fish (118 prices analysed) have risen by 24.2%, while the prices of beverages (44 products including soft drinks, juices, water, beers and other alcoholic beverages) have increased by 23.5%.

Likewise, the price of the cleaning and personal hygiene products analyzed (34) has increased by an average of 19.3% in the last year, while fruits and vegetables (74 prices) have increased by 17.7% and pasta, legumes and rice (27), at 12.2%.