Opinion – Maria Inês Dolci: Chocolate bar and plate made shrink in the country of food insecurity

The chocolate bar is an example of food miniaturization. In the 1980s and 1990s, the packages told us that we were buying 200g. Today, on average, 90g. But it was only the weight that lost weight. Prices, no. In addition to chocolates, this also happened with foods such as oatmeal, sandwich bread, potato chips and cookies, among others.

In the current economic scenario, this miniaturization process occurs because we have high inflation again (fortunately, nothing that resembles the hyperinflation before the Real). And there’s always the question of profit margin. As the prices of production inputs rise and income stagnates, manufacturers argue that they would reduce the weight of the product so as not to pass on all this increase in costs.

This practice is not prohibited, but they should inform us longer that we are buying a slimming product without price reduction.

Ordinance No. 81 of the Ministry of Justice, of January 23, 2022, requires suppliers to make quantitative changes to packaged products, to include a specific message on the main panel of the respective package, in letters of highlighted size and color, informing in a clear, precise and ostensible: I – that there was a quantitative change in the product; II – the quantity of the product in the existing packaging before the alteration; III – the quantity of the product in the existing packaging after the alteration; IV – the amount of product increased or decreased, in absolute and percentage terms.
This information must be on the packaging for at least three months. My suggestion is that this period be extended to six months.

Simply stamping 90 grams on a chocolate is not clearly informing that that bar, in the past, was 200g, 180g, 150g, etc.

Reducing portions and excluding certain foods has also reached the popular meal outside the home. The PF (made dish) has changed: beef steak is out, replaced by cuts of chicken, pork, omelet, fish and sausage. And they started to offer options with smaller portions, a little more affordable.
As little cruelty is silly, last April the inflation of the dish made, in the period of 12 months, ranged from 15% to 34% in Brazilian capitals.

Food safety is a rare item indeed. Now we learn from UOL that the federal government has practically zeroed out the budget of the main food acquisition program for family farming, Alimenta Brasil, aimed at purchasing agricultural production from families and donating food to people in situations of food and nutritional insecurity. Eating well is increasingly difficult in Brazil.