Marketplace investigates shrinkflation and reveals the sneaky ways companies cut costs, but not prices

With prices for all kinds of consumer goods surging, CBC Marketplace looked at some ways consumers are paying more for less — and may not even know it.

Experts tell Marketplace that greater transparency is needed to help consumers identify the ways in which companies may subtly reduce the quality and quantity of their products while charging consumers the same amount or more.

Shrinkflation is a tactic that companies use to subtly reduce the size or weight of a product to save money without increasing the price. A less commonly known form of shrinkflation is where a company swaps out ingredients for cheaper alternatives, or adds water while decreasing other ingredients.

Governments could intervene, says economist and writer Armine Yalnizyan, especially when it comes to monitoring pricing in sectors with little competition like grocery stores.

"We really don't have something that works in the interest of consumers, even though we're a highly consumer-oriented society," Yalnizyan said.

The Competition Bureau announced in October that it will be looking into competitiveness in the grocery sector and making suggestions to the government about how it can be improved based on its findings.

Daniel Tsai, a business professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who runs a consumer rights website, says this market study is an "adequate first step."

But he notes that the bureau will be limited in its study of the sector. It will not be able to study how costs on the manufacturer's end — such as gas, transportation and ingredients — impact prices at grocery stores, he says.

Marketplace identified several items that underwent shrinkflation recently, and BetterCartAnalytics — a company that tracks grocery pricing — provided the price history of the products. 

Betty Henry, a consumer in London, Ont., has been using E.D Smith's Pumpkin Pie Filling for 50 years to make pies for Thanksgiving. She says she noticed a difference in the filling as soon as she opened the can this year.

The pie filling used to list vegetable oil as the third-largest share in the ingredient list. 

In the new version of the product that Henry used this year, vegetable oil had been moved to sixth place. And taking its place at third? Water. 

"It was more pumpkin soup than pie filling," Henry said of the added water.