4 ms·

Ice cream is 1.5 qt not 1/2 gallon. I don't know what they put into pizza "dough" but it's not real flour. Everything has been spreadsheeted to death.

buran77 2mo ago
To be honest, for some things, getting a smaller serving and/or higher price is a blessing in disguise - health-wise at least. Same with soda servings where very large cups or bottles encourage higher consumption.
- insane_dreamer 2mo ago
  except that soda is (sadly) one case where the cups have gotten bigger. did they even have 32 oz "extra extra gulp" size 30 years ago?
  - philipkglass 2mo ago
    The 32 oz "Big Gulp" was introduced by 7-11 in 1976 in Southern California: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gulp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gulp Even bigger sizes arrived in the 1980s: Called Big Gulp because it was initially the largest such drink available at any retailer, 7-Eleven eventually introduced larger sizes. In 1986, they introduced the 44-US-fluid-ounce (1,300 ml) Super Big Gulp, followed by the 64-US-fluid-ounce (1,900 ml) Double Gulp in 1989 (later reduced to 50-US-fluid-ounce (1,500 ml))...
  - Merad 2mo ago
    Oh yes, the 1990s was the height of massive fast food drinks. Wendy's had 32 oz "biggie" drinks and a 40+ oz "great biggie". McDonalds had "super size" tho I don't recall its volume. Most of those got renamed by the mid 00's and eventually downsized.
  - phil21 2mo ago
    They were more absurd in the 90's. You'd have the gas station 64oz reusable cups you could use to do unlimited refills for a dollar. "Super Size" was a 90's thing as well, if I recall. It was basically an arms race of which company could provide the most ridiculously large portions of a cheap product like soda or fries. Then the PR swung in the 00's due to the obesity epidemic and such stuff was silently rolled back. Likely for both PR and cost reasons. The 32oz drink stuck around though pretty much everywhere.
    - insane_dreamer 2mo ago
      ah, ok, good to know! I thought it was a recent phenomenon. 64 oz is absurd! I only moved to the US ~10 yrs ago and quite unfamiliar with US in 80s/90s
  - wolvoleo 2mo ago
    Soda is super cheap to make though. It's usually just tap water with some processed sugar and some artificial flavourings. It's an easy thing to promote more of to divert attention while reducing something else that actually costs money to make. Or why portions of fries go up when burgers go down in size. Cheapest food item.
- giobox 2mo ago
  I was genuinely curious to see what the legally mandated calorie/ingredient content labelling was in 1991 on a UK Mars bar, but sadly no pictures of the underside. While I've no doubts shrinkflation explains a great deal of this, it would be interesting if increased mandatory food content reporting on packaging had even a small effect on reducing the calorie content of confectionery over time, as consumers could more easily compare etc and market responded with products in portion sizes to better fit preferences. You can even see in the article photo, the more recent modern Mars bar has the calorific content printed on the front, in addition to the big label all UK food has on the rear. The 1991 example does not.
  - account42 2mo ago
    You expect anyone to look at the calorie contents of a candy bar??
gruez 2mo ago
> I don't know what they put into pizza "dough" but it's not real flour. That conspiracy doesn't make sense given that flour is probably the cheapest ingredient in a pizza besides water. You'd have a hard time finding something cheaper, not to mention hiding it (either from the ingredients list, or from your conspirators)
- moate 2mo ago
  As someone who hates the government and the megacorps, I loathe statements like the OPs because there are so many legit and real reasons to hate shit before we come up with "KFC doesn't call themselves Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore because there isn't enough chicken in their product" type of conspiracy nonsense. Also, based on the statement, you're buying shit pizza from trash restaurants/frozen garbage. That's why the crust is bad. Pizza is one of the cheapest things you can make, that's why when I worked in restaurants I always said if you can't make money selling pizza you need to get out of the industry.
  - detourdog 2mo ago
    In the 80-90's fried food was vilified and they wanted to start selling things beyond chicken. The old name carried prejudices the corporate overlords wanted to eliminate.
- modo_mario 2mo ago
  There's different grades of flour and different countries grade them differently.
- HumblyTossed 2mo ago
  Okay, but pizza crusts have gotten worse over the years and there's only 4 ingredients and one is water, so...
Gormo 2mo ago
> Ice cream is 1.5 qt not 1/2 gallon. Except Blue Bell, who use a bright banner on their packaging to call out "Still 1/2 Gal!".
- annoyingnoob 2mo ago
  The thing about ice cream is overrun. How much air is in that half gallon today vs 30 years ago? I'm sure you are buying more air today.
  - vel0city 2mo ago
    "Ice cream" has a legal minimum density floor of 4.5lbs per gallon. It has been that way since 1958. If they're mixing more air than that per gallon, they can't legally call it "ice cream". https://www.nytimes.com/1958/03/26/archives/u-s-issues-an-ice-cream-code-calls-for-10-milk-fat-content.html https://www.nytimes.com/1958/03/26/archives/u-s-issues-an-ic... The term "ice cream" is pretty well regulated in the US. Really shows where our priorities are as Americans.
    - fluoridation 2mo ago
      Why not just measure it by weight then? That's what we do here.
      - vel0city 2mo ago
        I have no clue to the history of it, but personally speaking when I'm serving myself some ice cream I'm eyeballing the volume of ice cream not measuring it on a scale. Even when I buy froyo and I literally am paying by the ounce I'm usually thinking about the size of it as I add stuff and not necessarily thinking exactly about the weight.
    - sophacles 2mo ago
      And a lot of 'ice cream' tubs in the "ice cream" section of your grocery store are "frozen dairy desert" not ice cream. They are packaged like Ice Cream, flavored like Ice cream, and appear to be Ice Cream. But the words Ice Cream do not appear and instead a hard to spot "frozen dairy desert" is somewhere on the packaging.
throwaway2037 2mo ago
> I don't know what they put into pizza "dough" but it's not real flour. This is a weird claim. Wheat is so incredibly cheap in the developed world; why would you bother with a substitute for a regular pizza? Also, can you share any specifics or details? Honestly, I don't really believe your claim.
- cucumber3732842 2mo ago
  >why would you bother with a substitute for a regular pizza? Shelf life, reduced calories, ease of working with, etc, etc. Basically all those secondary goals you optimize for once it's a given that the pizza will pizza properly.
- fsckboy 2mo ago
  there are different flours available which vary in suitability for different purposes and in cost. King Arthur Flour has a computer controlled mill and they offer a service to bread makers to let them specify their own "recipe" for the flour they wish to order. https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour-grades https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour-grades excerpt: "French bakers will use straight flour in their bread making; North Americans and British generally don’t. "Straight flour is separated by sifting in other grades. The straight flour is passed along a roller over different sieves. Different grades fall through the appropriate sieve along the roller. In the percentages given below, the lower the percentage of straight flour that falls through a particular grading sieve, the more desirable the flour."
  - account42 2mo ago
    It's annoying how flours are graded differently in different countries and following recipes from other countries becomes much harder because you need a spreadsheet to figure out the equivalent local grade and often it just isn't available in normal super markets who prefer to stock ten different brands of the same 2-5 grades instead of actual variety. /rant
- RunSet 2mo ago
  Pizza adjacent: Some clever fellow decided to shave a nickel by padding their shredded parmesan with sawdust and now the other brands of parmesan have "No cellulose!" on the label as if that is a selling point. Which it is, now, alas. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/17/parmesan-cheese-store-bought-wood-pulp https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/17/parmesa...
stephenhuey 2mo ago
Blue Bell is a real half gallon.
- vel0city 2mo ago
  3.785L or 4.546L? Both are real gallons.
- wavewrangler 2mo ago
  It's also like a real 8 or 9 bucks.
  - cucumber3732842 2mo ago
    You can get the cheap gallons for less than that. The cookies 'n' cream is pretty alright.

buran77 2mo ago

To be honest, for some things, getting a smaller serving and/or higher price is a blessing in disguise - health-wise at least. Same with soda servings where very large cups or bottles encourage higher consumption.

insane_dreamer 2mo ago
except that soda is (sadly) one case where the cups have gotten bigger. did they even have 32 oz "extra extra gulp" size 30 years ago?
- philipkglass 2mo ago
  The 32 oz "Big Gulp" was introduced by 7-11 in 1976 in Southern California: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gulp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gulp Even bigger sizes arrived in the 1980s: Called Big Gulp because it was initially the largest such drink available at any retailer, 7-Eleven eventually introduced larger sizes. In 1986, they introduced the 44-US-fluid-ounce (1,300 ml) Super Big Gulp, followed by the 64-US-fluid-ounce (1,900 ml) Double Gulp in 1989 (later reduced to 50-US-fluid-ounce (1,500 ml))...
- Merad 2mo ago
  Oh yes, the 1990s was the height of massive fast food drinks. Wendy's had 32 oz "biggie" drinks and a 40+ oz "great biggie". McDonalds had "super size" tho I don't recall its volume. Most of those got renamed by the mid 00's and eventually downsized.
- phil21 2mo ago
  They were more absurd in the 90's. You'd have the gas station 64oz reusable cups you could use to do unlimited refills for a dollar. "Super Size" was a 90's thing as well, if I recall. It was basically an arms race of which company could provide the most ridiculously large portions of a cheap product like soda or fries. Then the PR swung in the 00's due to the obesity epidemic and such stuff was silently rolled back. Likely for both PR and cost reasons. The 32oz drink stuck around though pretty much everywhere.
  - insane_dreamer 2mo ago
    ah, ok, good to know! I thought it was a recent phenomenon. 64 oz is absurd! I only moved to the US ~10 yrs ago and quite unfamiliar with US in 80s/90s
- wolvoleo 2mo ago
  Soda is super cheap to make though. It's usually just tap water with some processed sugar and some artificial flavourings. It's an easy thing to promote more of to divert attention while reducing something else that actually costs money to make. Or why portions of fries go up when burgers go down in size. Cheapest food item.
giobox 2mo ago
I was genuinely curious to see what the legally mandated calorie/ingredient content labelling was in 1991 on a UK Mars bar, but sadly no pictures of the underside. While I've no doubts shrinkflation explains a great deal of this, it would be interesting if increased mandatory food content reporting on packaging had even a small effect on reducing the calorie content of confectionery over time, as consumers could more easily compare etc and market responded with products in portion sizes to better fit preferences. You can even see in the article photo, the more recent modern Mars bar has the calorific content printed on the front, in addition to the big label all UK food has on the rear. The 1991 example does not.
- account42 2mo ago
  You expect anyone to look at the calorie contents of a candy bar??

gruez 2mo ago

> I don't know what they put into pizza "dough" but it's not real flour. That conspiracy doesn't make sense given that flour is probably the cheapest ingredient in a pizza besides water. You'd have a hard time finding something cheaper, not to mention hiding it (either from the ingredients list, or from your conspirators)

moate 2mo ago
As someone who hates the government and the megacorps, I loathe statements like the OPs because there are so many legit and real reasons to hate shit before we come up with "KFC doesn't call themselves Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore because there isn't enough chicken in their product" type of conspiracy nonsense. Also, based on the statement, you're buying shit pizza from trash restaurants/frozen garbage. That's why the crust is bad. Pizza is one of the cheapest things you can make, that's why when I worked in restaurants I always said if you can't make money selling pizza you need to get out of the industry.
- detourdog 2mo ago
  In the 80-90's fried food was vilified and they wanted to start selling things beyond chicken. The old name carried prejudices the corporate overlords wanted to eliminate.
modo_mario 2mo ago
There's different grades of flour and different countries grade them differently.
HumblyTossed 2mo ago
Okay, but pizza crusts have gotten worse over the years and there's only 4 ingredients and one is water, so...

Gormo 2mo ago

> Ice cream is 1.5 qt not 1/2 gallon. Except Blue Bell, who use a bright banner on their packaging to call out "Still 1/2 Gal!".

annoyingnoob 2mo ago
The thing about ice cream is overrun. How much air is in that half gallon today vs 30 years ago? I'm sure you are buying more air today.
- vel0city 2mo ago
  "Ice cream" has a legal minimum density floor of 4.5lbs per gallon. It has been that way since 1958. If they're mixing more air than that per gallon, they can't legally call it "ice cream". https://www.nytimes.com/1958/03/26/archives/u-s-issues-an-ice-cream-code-calls-for-10-milk-fat-content.html https://www.nytimes.com/1958/03/26/archives/u-s-issues-an-ic... The term "ice cream" is pretty well regulated in the US. Really shows where our priorities are as Americans.
  - fluoridation 2mo ago
    Why not just measure it by weight then? That's what we do here.
    - vel0city 2mo ago
      I have no clue to the history of it, but personally speaking when I'm serving myself some ice cream I'm eyeballing the volume of ice cream not measuring it on a scale. Even when I buy froyo and I literally am paying by the ounce I'm usually thinking about the size of it as I add stuff and not necessarily thinking exactly about the weight.
  - sophacles 2mo ago
    And a lot of 'ice cream' tubs in the "ice cream" section of your grocery store are "frozen dairy desert" not ice cream. They are packaged like Ice Cream, flavored like Ice cream, and appear to be Ice Cream. But the words Ice Cream do not appear and instead a hard to spot "frozen dairy desert" is somewhere on the packaging.

throwaway2037 2mo ago

> I don't know what they put into pizza "dough" but it's not real flour. This is a weird claim. Wheat is so incredibly cheap in the developed world; why would you bother with a substitute for a regular pizza? Also, can you share any specifics or details? Honestly, I don't really believe your claim.

cucumber3732842 2mo ago
>why would you bother with a substitute for a regular pizza? Shelf life, reduced calories, ease of working with, etc, etc. Basically all those secondary goals you optimize for once it's a given that the pizza will pizza properly.
fsckboy 2mo ago
there are different flours available which vary in suitability for different purposes and in cost. King Arthur Flour has a computer controlled mill and they offer a service to bread makers to let them specify their own "recipe" for the flour they wish to order. https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour-grades https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour-grades excerpt: "French bakers will use straight flour in their bread making; North Americans and British generally don’t. "Straight flour is separated by sifting in other grades. The straight flour is passed along a roller over different sieves. Different grades fall through the appropriate sieve along the roller. In the percentages given below, the lower the percentage of straight flour that falls through a particular grading sieve, the more desirable the flour."
- account42 2mo ago
  It's annoying how flours are graded differently in different countries and following recipes from other countries becomes much harder because you need a spreadsheet to figure out the equivalent local grade and often it just isn't available in normal super markets who prefer to stock ten different brands of the same 2-5 grades instead of actual variety. /rant
RunSet 2mo ago
Pizza adjacent: Some clever fellow decided to shave a nickel by padding their shredded parmesan with sawdust and now the other brands of parmesan have "No cellulose!" on the label as if that is a selling point. Which it is, now, alas. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/17/parmesan-cheese-store-bought-wood-pulp https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/17/parmesa...

stephenhuey 2mo ago

Blue Bell is a real half gallon.

vel0city 2mo ago
3.785L or 4.546L? Both are real gallons.
wavewrangler 2mo ago
It's also like a real 8 or 9 bucks.
- cucumber3732842 2mo ago
  You can get the cheap gallons for less than that. The cookies 'n' cream is pretty alright.