Shrinkflation: Coca-Cola slims sugar-free drink sizes to match regular ones

Lester Kiewit interviews Petronell Kruger of the Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA).

Listen to their conversation using the audio player below.

The Coca-Cola company's sugar-free drinks have shrunk in size to match those of their regular sugary ones.

The company has been selling their products in different sizes since the advent of the Health Promotion Levy (also known as the 'sugar tax') in 2018 so that people would supposedly opt for the more affordable and healthier sugar-free offerings over the regular ones.

"What we're seeing Coke engaging in is shrinkflation. It's a common tactic used by the food and beverage industry when they need to up their profits but they realise that consumers are cash strapped. So, what they do is they change the size of their packaging downwards so they don't have to change their price point and this is because consumers are more sensitive to price changes than quantity changes."

- Petronell Kruger, Healthy Living Alliance

According to Coca-Cola, they have adjusted the sizes and have sent notices to their retailers. 

However, when asked why the packaging changes don't come with a price reduction, the beverage company said they only provide retailers with recommended retail prices.

It would appear that sugary and non-sugary drinks are the same price and the same size.

So, does this mean that the sugar tax is not incentivising consumers to choose drinks with less sugar?

"... we have really good and convincing and repeated studies that have shown that it has firstly changed consumer behaviour, especially in low-income consumers who are more likely to feel the negative impact of diseases associated with high sugar intake like diabetes and unable to pay for things like insulin. But we also have seen, and this is what is very interesting, that companies have engaged in the reformulation of their products which is reducing the amount of sugar and to some extent reducing their packaging sizes."

- Petronell Kruger, Healthy Living Alliance

Despite the good results the sugar tax has brought with it, Kruger does not believe that the changes made by Coca-Cola have anything to do with the health of the people consuming their products.

"I don't think this is motivated by health whatsoever. I think this is simply a response from the Coca-Cola company to ensure they can maintain their profit margin." 

- Petronell Kruger, Healthy Living Alliance

Scroll up to listen to the full interview.