r/mildlyinfuriating • u/kariyot • 13h ago
Thought i will try to treat my family with something new
No place said how many pieces it will have so i expected at least 20 with how tha package looks
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u/Watcher-Of-The-Skies 10h ago
People can be cranky about whether OP should know how much 240g of shrimp is, or whether he/she should have shaken the box, etc — but this packaging goes out of its way to be deceitful. No reason for the box to be that big or for the window to be positioned the way it is.
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u/fleetcommand 10h ago
Especially because the "out of sight" part of the inside is fixed to ensure that the content does not move and the customer won't find it out before opening it. This is shady af. And should be illegal.
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u/IddleHands 5h ago
It probably is illegal in the US, OP should file a complaint.
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u/amojitoLT 5h ago
Considering it's in grams, I doubt it is in the US.
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u/IddleHands 5h ago
We see grams on food packaging all the time in the US, but the Celsius is a dead giveaway.
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u/generatedusername13 3h ago
So OP probably has even more rights with which to go after the greedy bastards who chose to make this packaging!
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u/SendMePicsOfCat 34m ago
No, America has far more protections for consumers than most nations. One of the many unspoken American Superiorities. America #1!
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u/DystopianAdvocate 9h ago
Governments should introduce an 'excess packaging tax' and start hitting these companies who have wasteful and deceitful packaging. It's bad for consumers, and it's bad for the environment.
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u/JustARandomGuyReally 7h ago
Put fucking Lays on notice! Every time they reduce the amount of chips in a bag, they make the bag bigger and fill it with more air.
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u/3NJV 7h ago
The "air" in a bag of Lays chips is actually nitrogen gas, used to prevent chips from becoming stale and to provide a "cushioning" effect during transportation.
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u/JustARandomGuyReally 1h ago
Yes. And they put too much of it and have historically increased its amount at the same time they’ve decreased the weight of chips in the bags. There are smaller bags that contain more chips and they’re just as fresh and just as protected.
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u/A_Nifty_Username 7h ago
Yo, my guy, regular room air is like 70% nitrogen. There's nothing special they're putting into Lays chips to justify what they do unless you have some source for the %nitrogen in lays bags. It's room air unless otherwise clarified.
Do you also think 2% milk means they took 98% of the fat out? Cow's milk is only 4-6% fat naturally. You're just drinking it after they scrape the cream off. It's all in the psychology of phrasing.
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u/3NJV 7h ago edited 7h ago
The process of filling chip bags with nitrogen it's called Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) or "slack fill", they remove the oxygen from the air and replace it with nitrogen. They use nitrogen because it's an inert gas, which means it reacts poorly with other chemicals. I don't know shit about milk or why u mentioned it, but cool
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u/A_Nifty_Username 6h ago
And I asked for what the percentage of nitrogen is at the end. I know what the process is called and that nitrogen is inert. Oxygen is an oxidizer, hence why apples turn brown when cut open and exposed to air. I get the idea of excluding an oxidizer, what I asked is, in the MAP process- what's your start and end nitrogen amount?
If you start with the 70~% from room air and end with 75% in the bag that sounds like not much was really done and MAP is just a bullshit technobabble smokescreen to justify more air/less products, eh?
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u/BirdGelApple555 6h ago
The reason for putting nitrogen in the bags is not the same reason for putting excess gas in the bags.
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u/NovelCommercial3365 5h ago
This. I don’t care (I mean, I do like a crunchy chip) about the nitrogen thing-a-ma-bob in the context of this issue. I care more about why the shrinkflation is going on unchallenged by government/the public. Like the now 650g yogurt still being put into 750g tubs. Many other examples. At a higher price. There should HAVE to be a “new smaller size” label when they do that. The oligarchies are not just a USA thing. Looking at you, Galen…
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u/WesternBlueRanger 5h ago
Likely because the machinery can't accommodate smaller packaging.
Packaging and handling machinery is designed around certain sized packaging; that's why a package redesign is a major undertaking, as not only are you changing the packaging, you also need to replace the machinery that package your product, and stack it on a pallet for shipping.
There's also issues at the store level as well; if a supplier changes the dimensions on an item, it changes what is called the planogram or POG for the shelf and section.
The planogram shows how high or low the product should be displayed on a shelf and which products should surround it. The resulting planogram is printed out as a visual, which is then used by the store to layout the shelf and to restock retail shelves and displays.
If a dimension gets changed, it could massively change the planogram; for example, if the package gets taller, it may mean that the shelves above the item need to be moved up, resulting in less shelf space. If it gets shorter, then there is lots of empty space between shelves that cannot be filled.
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u/Ran0702 5h ago edited 5h ago
The proportion after packaging is close to 100%. The purpose is to exclude oxygen from the packaging, not to fill the bags with air to make them look bigger. If it was just for the latter they could just pipe room air in there and save themselves some money on nitrogen bottles.
PS: atmospheric nitrogen is 78%, not 70%.
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u/5236987410 5h ago
Nitrogen is dirt cheap. It would probably cost more for them to engineer a delivery system that blends an air mix with less than the 99.99% percent purity of their source tanks than it would to just fully flush them with it. Plus the air serves as padding during shipping so you don't get a pile of crumbs.
PepsiCo/Frito-Lay sue farmers in developing countries for growing their patented potatoes. They're a major buyer of palm oil, meaning they're a major driver of deforestation. They've used child labor in Indonesia. In Topeka, Kansas their workers went on strike due to 84-hour work weeks and low wages.
There's plenty to hate about chip manufactures - the nitrogen purity of their bag air is a strange choice.
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u/George_W_Kush58 4h ago
open a bag of chips and leave it out for the night. check how they taste. think really hard if they taste the same as a freshly opened bag. think again if maybe, just maybe, the process actually has a purpose.
you can skip all that and just think for once. That should actually be enough.
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u/George_W_Kush58 4h ago
Yo, my guy, regular room air is like 70% nitrogen
last time I checked that leaves 30% for stuff that makes your chips stale. 1% moisture is enough.
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u/miloVanq 9h ago
what kind of rain man type savant picks up a box like that and can tell how much 240g of shrimp are lol. I'm glad all those comments sit at the bottom because that's ridiculous. people need to stop defending this kind of deception.
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u/OutAndDown27 6h ago
Do other countries not have nutrition facts that say "serving size - 3 pieces; servings per container - 4"?
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u/Ryuiop 5h ago
The company gets to decide what constitutes a serving size tho, so it's not that helpful of a metric.
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u/OutAndDown27 4h ago
Math isn't a helpful metric? Looking at this package, if it said three pieces I would clearly know that means three dumplings. If it said four servings of three pieces, I would know there are 12 dumplings.
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u/akio3 4h ago
The US does, but sometimes a serving size is in grams/ounces rather than pieces, making it no more helpful than the net weight.
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u/OutAndDown27 4h ago
Every food package I have ever seen with distinct items inside, eg dumplings, cookies, nuggets, etc., provides the serving size in those terms - three dumplings, 4.5 nuggets, one taquito, whatever. Servings by grams or ounces are for things that do not have distinct servable pieces, like mashed potatoes, or things that aren't a uniform size, like potato chips.
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u/0kokuryu0 6h ago
Don't worry, they'll shrink the packaging after a while and market it as saving the environment by using less plastic.
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u/Tiny_Mastodon_624 2h ago
It probably just comes from a place that hasnt updated their packaging facility. This looks as though they are making do with machines that don’t accommodate the ideal package.
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u/Heavy-Top-8540 6h ago
It does not go out of its way to be deceitful. I'm sick and tired of people not understanding anything. The company paid for a line that makes boxes and they already paid for all those trays and what not, and when they have to change the amount in the package they're not going to change the packaging cuz that's extremely expensive. They would quite literally have to go out of their way to update the packaging.
It doesn't change whether or not it's shrinkflation or bad or any of these other things, but what you're saying is just objectively not true.
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u/po114 4h ago
It takes pennies to print the number of dumplings on the front of the package, or otherwise indicate that the package isn't full in order to not "accidentally" deceive your customers.
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u/Heavy-Top-8540 1h ago
Lmao I even said I wasn't disagreeing that it's bad. I stated an objective fact about the SIZE of the packaging, which is what the comment I was replying to was about. Your comment amounts to a non sequitur.
But man, y'all really downvoted with your feelings. I wonder how many of you also furiously up vote the "don't downvote just because you disagree!" Posts too.
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u/theviewhalfwaydown_ 10h ago
There’s no reason for the box to be that big it’s definitely infuriating sorry op
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u/Lecodyman 10h ago
I hate how people are saying they should have looked at the serving sizes and that. You should be able to look at a box and decide if it will feed you. Telling people to be more attentive is just an excuse to defend the shitty practices of shitty corporations.
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u/bakanisan YELLOW 9h ago
Yeah serving size is a joke. Take one look at a bag of chips and you're telling me a 75g bag has several servings??!?
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u/Unicycleterrorist 9h ago
Both can be true, no? OP is silly for ignoring the very prominent net weight printed on the front of the package - volume is often a bad indication of weight so if you expect it to feed X amount of people you need to be aware of how much you're actually buying. And at the same time, the company are being deceitful fucks by packaging it this way and shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.
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u/Cyber_Candi_ 8h ago
Can most people not tell by holding something if it's going to be enough? Like if you blindfolded someone and handed them a mcdonalds bag with 2 20 packs of nuggets and a basket of fries (a meal for 2+ people), it's going to feel heavier than say a bag of chips (not enough food for a meal).
Yes the packaging is shitty, but unless OP ordered it online they 100% had the opportunity to hold the product and decide if it felt heavy enough to feed however many people. Shrimp isn't very heavy, so unless the box was weighted I doubt it felt like a full meal/appetizer enough for a family.
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u/OutAndDown27 6h ago
...can most people calculate "enough" food simply by feeling the weight?? That's not a thing. I refuse to believe the most people pick up a box of frozen dumplings and decide by weight if it feels like "enough" food for an appetizer as part of a larger meal.
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u/EpicSteak RED 10h ago
I hate how people refuse to take responsibility for their own actions
Companies are not our friends and we know that so it is on us to look out for ourselves.
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u/LieLow6311 9h ago
You have 2 posts complaining about chips and tuna, maybe take your own advice lol
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u/whirlygig14 9h ago
Complaining about how the tuna companies literally lied (as opposed to deceived, which we find in this post) about the package weight, as well as making informed, conscious decisions about what companies they are willing to give their money to. I think you are conflating complaining with not taking responsibility. They are not synonyms. A company can suck AND we need to take responsibility. That’s literally what they are saying.
Many things can be true at one time.
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u/JUSTIN102201 7h ago
Sorry man. You should be able to feel the weight of the tuna package and not worry about what the package looks like. Your fault. The companies aren’t the problem. Also, deceit is a form of lying so….
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u/madeat1am 10h ago
Take responsibility for being lied to?
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u/madeat1am 10h ago
The package uses false advertising that's being lied to
Also saying an adult must have this number of food is a little harmful cos different body types and different people have different needs. Just to add to that**
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u/hanse_moleman 8h ago
Not being able to read, is not false advertising.
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u/rnason 8h ago
You’re saying the box isn’t over sized for what’s in there?
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u/hanse_moleman 8h ago
I don't think that's the point of this story. If you can't read...🤷🏼♀️
This idiot genuinely thought 240 grams of anything would be enough for a whole family.
That's the point of this story
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u/JUSTIN102201 7h ago
Uh no. The point of the story is they saw a package that looked full and it wasn’t. Nobody mentioned weight except for the people excusing this
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u/MRiley84 7h ago
It's deceptive packaging because they know people shop with their eyes and don't read the fine print. More developed countries have consumer protection standards in place to prevent intentional deceit like this. We also have something in place that says slack fill and void space needs to have a purpose or the excess packaging will be considered misleading and false advertisement.
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u/EpicSteak RED 10h ago
The box tells you the weight.
When you pick up the box you can feel the weight.
No one has been lied to.
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u/madeat1am 9h ago
Oh you're the one making and selling the Hakeo aren't you
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u/EpicSteak RED 9h ago
I am the one laughing at the downvotes for facts. 😄
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u/thatonegaygalakasha 8h ago
I mean, you may be a rainman savant able to pick up a package and immediately know how much it weighs, but the rest of us aren't.
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u/RedLions11 9h ago
Companies are not our friends, you are right. We need to hold them accountable if they lie to us. Companies have more resources than any one individual person. So as a group of individuals, we need to set rules to stop companies from being deceitful.
Literally false advertising laws exist for this reason, we just need to make them stronger.
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u/East-Block-4011 9h ago
How is this false advertising?
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u/RedLions11 9h ago
Using a box larger than is required to fit the food and hiding how much volume the food uses??? DUH, new to thinking?
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u/East-Block-4011 9h ago
Lol, no, that's not how it works. The information is printed on the box.
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u/RedLions11 9h ago
Ok, tell me why a company would use a larger box than required to fit the food?
Remember, it uses more resources to make a larger box.
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u/East-Block-4011 9h ago
Ok, tell me why you wouldn't read the box. Tell me why you didn't notice the box was half empty when you picked it up. Do you bitch about Kraft mac & cheese not filling the whole box? Shouldn't they legally have to use a smaller box?
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u/RedLions11 9h ago
I asked you first, stop dodging my question.
Is it because you KNOW it is deceptive to use a larger box. As I explained in my first comment, a single individual cannot compete against the deceptive practices of a large company, this is why individuals form groups to stop companies from being deceptive.
You for example have been paid by this company to just argue for fun, or even worse are doing it for free because you're stupid.
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u/RedLions11 9h ago
Kraft Mac and cheese requires additional ingredients to be added to be made. This only requires is to be steamed or fried on a pan, it's not the same. Stop trying to distract by using poor comparisons.
Also how do you notice a half empty box if you can't see through it? Please tell me where you're from so I know which educational system failed you.
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u/East-Block-4011 9h ago
You think the whole package feels full? It's not noticeably heavier on one corner? Have you ever actually done any grocery shopping, or do you leave that up to your mom?
How is it any different if the box isn't completely filled with noodles? It should be completely full. I'm only getting a half full box. Shouldn't they be required to use a smaller box or fill it completely? That seems very deceptive, doesn't it?
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u/Lecodyman 9h ago
It is made to advertise a product to someone so it looks bigger than it really is. It is literally falsely advertising a product to be bigger than it really is.
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u/East-Block-4011 9h ago
That's not how that works. The information is printed on the box. You being too stupid or lazy to read doesn't make something illegal.
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u/NovaAstraFaded 9h ago
That is quite literally what happened and how that works.
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u/East-Block-4011 8h ago
The size of the dumpling is shown. Why do you think OP didn't show the back of the box where the serving size is given? Are you too lazy to read labels?
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u/NovaAstraFaded 8h ago
How the hells do you think I'd know anything about OPs thoughts? It doesn't matter. This is mildly infuriating and a deceptive box is mildly infuriating.
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u/East-Block-4011 8h ago
The only thing to be mildly infuriated about is being too dumb to grocery shop like normal people.
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u/Cryogenycfreak 7h ago
Downvoted for telling the mean mean truth. It's called financial literacy, and a company will exploit those who don't have it. Facts are facts, and ignorent folks will spend more than those in the knowing.
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u/lacexeny 10h ago
people on here complaining that you should have done x and y are definitely the types who click accept on terms and conditions without reading and complain later that the company is stealing too much of their data.
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u/dinoooooooooos 10h ago
To me they feel more like ppl complaining that nobody wants to tip and flaming customers instead of turning around collectively and flame the boss for not paying more.
Like.. y’all mad at the wrong person and that’s exactly how they want it to be🤷🏽♀️
They want people to go home and go “ah🤦🏽♀️im an idiot for not checking more, my fault”- so they can make it worse ob a year or two. Shrinkflation isn’t a joke to them. squeezing cents is the goal.
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u/Grumpy521 6h ago
What's the benefit of doing this for a company? You get one sale, but the person isn't going to come back for seconds. They spend money on more packaging to get less long term customers
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u/Alarming_Subject_886 8h ago
Why us this even legal💀
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u/Capybarely 8h ago
It's not! I know that the FDA and other regulations might not be getting the enforcement we would hope, but it's still covered in 100.100 Misleading containers.
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u/frascada9119 9h ago
Steam them, they will expand, and ta-da, they’ll fit the oversized tray. Agree that the weight and serving size is on the box, but in any product that allows you to see in to the packaging, anything less than full is bullshit and scummy. If I had this experience, I wouldn’t be buying this brand again. Also sorry OP that a new food experience for your family turned out to be disappointing. I hope the taste made up for it at least!
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u/LesserValkyrie 10h ago
In developed countries, deceitful packages are highly illegal and this could never have existed
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u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE 9h ago
What makes it highly illegal? Isn’t it just regular illegal? I mean they’re not gonna charge the CEO with a felony (or equivalent).
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u/unlanned 9h ago
Highly illegal means they can get fines/lawsuits resolved for it in years instead of decades.
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u/LesserValkyrie 9h ago
Yeah it is regular illegal lol
But I mean it's enforced enough so in the whole country you will never find packaging like this that will makes you feel scammed because no industrial would try doing that to begin with
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u/Duckey_003 13h ago
Always shake your boxes!
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u/IcyDisaster4678 6h ago
Anything new to my family has been tried and tested by me beforehand and this is the reason why...been caught out so many times now
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u/Traditional_Entry627 5h ago
Nutrition facts are where I look to see how much is in the package when I can’t tell
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u/lesterhayesstickyick 12h ago
Most packages have serving per container listed
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u/Bagafeet 10h ago
The weight is on there. 240 grams ain't feeding a family. Still, deceptive packaging is shitty and I wouldn't buy the brand again.
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u/A_Nifty_Username 7h ago
To be fair, the weight balance should have felt off when you picked the box up. It's still bs though (try the Costco prawn hakao, that shit slaps).
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u/real_Bahamian 9h ago
Normally, the package has the number of pieces in a serving, and the total number of servings in a package. Can usually guesstimate the total number of pieces that way.
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u/No_Association4277 PURPLE 4h ago
States want to complain about people creating too much waste, banning this and that, yet they don’t go after the companies that set us up to be wasteful.
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u/AwesomelyxAwesome 4h ago
Rookie mistake….never go off how the package looks. They are going to package products in the cheapest, easiest way for the company. These boxes are probably cheaper than smaller ones. It has the weight right there in huge print.
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u/New_Excitement_1878 1h ago
Shoulda got 24 with that packaging, fucking hell. Literally double what you actually got.
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u/LorenzoStomp 13m ago
That is fucking unacceptable. Put them on blast on social media and tag them to ask wtf their problem is
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u/Miserable-Ad-7956 8h ago
240 grams should've clued you in. 454 is just around a pound for reference. Half a pound isn't enough shrimp to feed a family. OP got suckered by deceptive packaging, always read the numbers people.
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u/gmthisfeller 13h ago
Not sure why you thought the package with about 8 ounces of shrimp dumplings would have 20 pieces.
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u/brumduut 12h ago
Because most people don't know how much a shrimp dumpling weighs?
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u/Unicycleterrorist 9h ago
You don't need to know how much a shrimp dumpling weighs, you just need to know that 240g isn't a whole lot
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u/99drix 8h ago
You absolutely need to know how much a shrimp dumpling weighs, or at least have a general idea. If one dumpling weighs 5g then that’s 48 dumplings. If one dumpling weighs 120g then that’s 2 dumplings.
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u/Unicycleterrorist 1h ago edited 1h ago
Okay and why does that matter in regards to it feeding you and/or others? The amount of food is the same, you just split it into more pieces. It's only relevant if you have more people than dumplings cause you'd have to cut those apart, but 240g is still gonna be 240g.
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u/grary000 11h ago
People need to start being a little more attentive to what they buy...especially these days. Look at the net weight, feel the box to tell if there's a lot of empty space, look at serving and portion sizes.
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u/slugfive 10h ago
Nah, many packaged foods cooked in water can not be judged by their weight - pasta is an obvious example. Packet soup or risotto. It’s reasonable for people to think that these were partially freeze dried and would weight a lot more when cooked, or like some wontons have a soup filling. Especially if trying for the first time.
People shouldn’t have to calculate and read the fine print because in the future companies start adding ice cubes to the packaging of frozen good, package them in needlessly huge boxes, alternate specifying the price per serving rather than total etc.
The excess packaging wasted on the intent to deceive is mildly infuriating already. Regardless if people get tricked or not.
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u/hanse_moleman 11h ago
If you dont read the back where it says servings/size, this is on you.
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u/slugfive 10h ago
This is mildly infuriating not “legally defrauded”. It’s mildly infuriating just how much waste is used to create the illusion or more product let alone getting tricked by it.
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u/empetrys 12h ago
Net weight: 240g, what did you expected?
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u/LegendaryChalice 11h ago
Do you know how much a shrimp dumpling weighs?
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u/EpicSteak RED 10h ago
No, but I do know 240 grams is about 8 ounces which would be good for just one or two people.
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u/Cryogenycfreak 10h ago
On the back of the box, there is the nutritional value, and if you can read and do math, you'll know how much it weights. Ffs, 240g is so light!
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u/Kantherax 8h ago
People really need to stop and read what they buy. If you think 240g is going to feed your family, then I don't know what to say.
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u/stefrrrrrr 9h ago
I would go back to the grocery store and open every package of that shit to make sure someone else didn't get ripped off.
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u/Hwy_Witch 10h ago
So, you're mad at yourself for not looking at the number of servings, right?
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u/Selen3-27857 9h ago
I don't know why you guys are defending these companies like lets be honest majority of people don't look at servings like these is just straight of deceitful no matter how you put it.
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u/hanse_moleman 8h ago
Wow so, you're not even looking at the packaging information and still complaining?
Lol you cunts are fried 😂
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u/Educational-Toe-8619 11h ago
I mean yeah, that sucks. But shouldn't you notice that when you lift up the box?
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u/No-Video-1622 7h ago
I mean it does say 240g on the box. Anyone who is picky with their shopping will realize before purchasing it that it isn't a lot.
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u/Interfectrix_veritas 10h ago
“Thought I will try to treat my family with something new”
Hunger?
I kid, I kid. Seriously packaging and food tactics like this piss me off.