Cat Food Makers' Cynical Deceit

[AndiFlatland]

When cat food pouches first came on to the market - maybe in the 90s? - I always bought my cats a selection of brands, usually Whiskas, Felix, or one of the supermarkets' own brands. The pouches were always a standard 100g.
Then some while back, perhaps about 10 years, having bought a box of Whiskas, I noticed that the pouches seemed a bit lighter - and my senses were confirmed by looking at the weight on the back of the pouch, which had suddenly, quietly gone down to 85g. No warning, no explanation, no price drop - and no change in quality, as far as I could tell (...tasting it was not an option for me!...)
But Felix remained - and still remains - 100g. And whereas Whiskas has always all looked the same - anonymous brown lumps which, whatever the pack says, could be anything, whether meat, game or fish - Felix, 'As Good As It Looks' actually looks like real food, albeit that it all looks like tuna - and the cats lap it up (unintended pun!) Whiskas got picked at, and often had to be half wasted and thrown down the loo.
As time went on, I found other cat food manufacturers following suit - Gourmet, Sheba, 9 Lives, Kit-e-Kat, Friskies, Iams - started reducing their pouch or foil dish weights to the same as Whiskas, or even lower. I've even seen one as low as 40g, which, although they claimed it was intended as a snack rather than a meal, is just absurd. Surely if a cat is meant to have 100g of food at each meal, which is the general guideline, then these manufacturers are simply profiteering, and basically taking the p***, banking on the chance that most cat owners won't look too much at the weight, and assume that each pouch is a proper meal.
For many years since I realised what had happened, I've boycotted Whiskas, except if I find it on special offer. The cats seem to thrive quite happily on a circulating selection of Felix, Lidl's excellent own-brand Coshida, Aldi's own-brand, and the occasional good offer of one of the above-named brands in Poundland.
Any comments on this?

[Jackdaw33]

Never owned a cat so can't really comment. However, this phenomenon is not just restricted to pet food. I recently sent my cleaner to buy, inter alia, a 500 g box of Kellog's cornflakes. She came back with a 450 g box. It's just a sneaky way of upping their prices, hoping you won't notice the loss in weight.

[EDDIE51]

Have you looked at the % of the ingredients?
You will find they are all 80% 'moisture' or Water to put it in plain language. A 100g pouch is just 20g 'meat' and 80g water.

[bednobs]

no

[Jackdaw33]

As I have said, this practice extends far beyond pet products. It is now standard practice for manufacturers of packaged goods to reduce the contents whilst pretending the price is the same.

[pastafreak]

Cats need a fairly high protein diet. I'd say the food I bought 20 years ago had at least 25% protein....today's food is rubbish in comparison.
My cats get Felix,whiskas, sheba,those little tiny tins...whatever they decide is flavour of the week. They won't touch lidls or Aldi's own. It seems to take a lot to fill them up...maybe it's the dog sneaking it also...:-0

[Old_Geezer]

Selling less per unit bought is a common trick used to disguise a price rise. Happens with human food too. That it may be causing you to inadvertently put your pet on a diet is simply a side effect.

[wolf63]

Cat treats, Dreamies, cost bout £20 per kilo and yet we still buy them. It all boils down to obeying feline demands in the hope of a quiet life.

[douglas9401]

It's just the beginning of the fight back against the fat-cats.

[roopower]

We feed our cats on dried food - proplan, science plan and royal canin with a pouch two days a week. The dried food is expensive but there is no waste and it lasts ages. We noticed the pouches getting smaller too - but so have crisps and Mars bars!

[ummmm]

Felix is like feeding my cat drugs.

I always bought Whiskers, and he was happy with that (he gets raw meat and fish as well) but Tesco had an offer on Felix so I bought it and now he won't touch Whiskers.

My cat is not friendly at all until you have a pouch of Felix in your hand, then he's your best friend!

[jno]

standard procedure for all sorts of goods, as jackdaw says. They're reluctant to reduce the actual size of their products, which makes them harder to see and gives them less space on supermarket shelves, but they can put less in the boxes.

With Toblerone they just put the triangles further apart

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37904703

[Trishy]

I wonder if the rise in cost per unit weight is reflected in Retail Price Index calculations. Sounds like a sneaky way of reducing the true rate of inflation.

[Jackdaw33]

They do this with some brands of cigarettes as well. Last time I bought a pack of '20' it only held 17.

[Baldric]

///Never owned a cat/// (1st Answer)

Has anyone ever owned a Cat?

[Smowball]

My cat loves Gourmet and Felix. I tried sneaking Tescos pouches into her bowl - she took one sniff and looked at me with disgust then walked off lol.

[Prudie]

My cats will also not eat anything except Felix as good as it looks - my fault for buying it in the first place as is dreamies - I wouldn't dare enter the house if I'd run out of dreamies.