4 ms·

Are they only targeting a reduced quantity for the same price or can they somehow police a reduced quality?

lopis 3y ago
South Korea has been known for being very strict about false advertising in packaging. So products there usually look very similar to what's shown in the packaging. I imagine they go beyond reduced quantity.
DarkNova6 3y ago
Wouldn't be impossible to police. If you keep the same packaging, but change the ingredients how likely you think they just made the product better?
bell-cot 3y ago
Depends on the product, and the change. If "Chlorine Bleach" is diluted from 5.0% concentration (NaClO in H2O) to 4.5%, that's simple and obvious. If the gallon of chlorine bleach is replaced with a 96oz. "ultra" version, which is 6.5%? Do some math - that's a slight reduction in the NaClO quantity. If that "ultra" is 6.75%, that's a slight increase in NaClO quantity. Yet the manufacturer's sales and profits will very likely increase - because the "96 oz." will cut their packaging and transportation costs. And most people will not reduce the quantity of "ultra bleach" they use (in their mop bucket, washing machine, etc.) enough to offset the increased concentration. So (on average) customers will pay more money, for the cheaper-on-paper ultra bleach. And that's a very simple situation. How do you police it if Acme Soup Co. is tweaking their recipes, to put cheaper ingredients and more water into each can?
- dmichulke 3y ago
  Since water is specifically cheap (at least in my part of the world), maybe you should have price per dry mass (would work for food and cleaning agents) but that would probably mean they'd add sawdust or starch or sugar. So we could also add those to the "cheap ingredient list" but of course it's a never-ending battle and likely not to the benefit of the consumer. I suppose we're actually dealing with a price distribution so maybe a possible solution is: a graph where X is the procurement price per ingredient and Y is the percentage of the product that is composed of things with ingredient price <= X. You'd want to have as small as possible an area under that curve but then the question is the procurement price and we've gone full circle.
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  > If "Chlorine Bleach" is diluted from 5.0% concentration (NaClO in H2O) to 4.5%, that's simple and obvious. This can be surprisingly dangerous. Home canning recipes expect vinegar to have a certain, long-standard level of acidity to be safe. In the past year or two, some brands have very quietly change their acetic acid percentage. Small changes in other ingredients can really throw off safe recipes, like tomatoes going from 15 oz to 14.5 oz. That changes acid levels, too.
  - bell-cot 3y ago
    True. And there's also the all-too-common offense of screwing up old recipes - because miserably large number of those specify quantities like "one can of pie filling", "two package unflavored gelatin", and "one medium onion". Nothing can be done about the granny's collection of recipes on index cards, but I wish there was some "if you wanted to copyright your book or web site full of recipes, then you should have..." penalty for this.

South Korea has been known for being very strict about false advertising in packaging. So products there usually look very similar to what's shown in the packaging. I imagine they go beyond reduced quantity.

DarkNova6 3y ago

Wouldn't be impossible to police. If you keep the same packaging, but change the ingredients how likely you think they just made the product better?

bell-cot 3y ago

Depends on the product, and the change. If "Chlorine Bleach" is diluted from 5.0% concentration (NaClO in H2O) to 4.5%, that's simple and obvious. If the gallon of chlorine bleach is replaced with a 96oz. "ultra" version, which is 6.5%? Do some math - that's a slight reduction in the NaClO quantity. If that "ultra" is 6.75%, that's a slight increase in NaClO quantity. Yet the manufacturer's sales and profits will very likely increase - because the "96 oz." will cut their packaging and transportation costs. And most people will not reduce the quantity of "ultra bleach" they use (in their mop bucket, washing machine, etc.) enough to offset the increased concentration. So (on average) customers will pay more money, for the cheaper-on-paper ultra bleach. And that's a very simple situation. How do you police it if Acme Soup Co. is tweaking their recipes, to put cheaper ingredients and more water into each can?

dmichulke 3y ago
Since water is specifically cheap (at least in my part of the world), maybe you should have price per dry mass (would work for food and cleaning agents) but that would probably mean they'd add sawdust or starch or sugar. So we could also add those to the "cheap ingredient list" but of course it's a never-ending battle and likely not to the benefit of the consumer. I suppose we're actually dealing with a price distribution so maybe a possible solution is: a graph where X is the procurement price per ingredient and Y is the percentage of the product that is composed of things with ingredient price <= X. You'd want to have as small as possible an area under that curve but then the question is the procurement price and we've gone full circle.
ceejayoz 3y ago
> If "Chlorine Bleach" is diluted from 5.0% concentration (NaClO in H2O) to 4.5%, that's simple and obvious. This can be surprisingly dangerous. Home canning recipes expect vinegar to have a certain, long-standard level of acidity to be safe. In the past year or two, some brands have very quietly change their acetic acid percentage. Small changes in other ingredients can really throw off safe recipes, like tomatoes going from 15 oz to 14.5 oz. That changes acid levels, too.
- bell-cot 3y ago
  True. And there's also the all-too-common offense of screwing up old recipes - because miserably large number of those specify quantities like "one can of pie filling", "two package unflavored gelatin", and "one medium onion". Nothing can be done about the granny's collection of recipes on index cards, but I wish there was some "if you wanted to copyright your book or web site full of recipes, then you should have..." penalty for this.