Thread: Breakfast cereal deception

Another reason for packaging being a bit 'vague' is to allow the manufacturer a bit of wiggle room when they have to change the product weight due to seasonal variations in the price of the ingredients; especially relevant with products like chocolate...I remember seeing "NOW 20% BIGGER" on chocolate bars so many times that the standard size should be like a kilo or more by now....

But I've found that I now price shop by that handy 100 gram price, so full marks to whoever legislated it!

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

But I've found that I now price shop by that handy 100 gram price, so full marks to whoever legislated it!

..Yep, always check the 'per 100gm' price....if they could just print it slightly larger that would be great..(i wouldn't need to take two pairs of specs then)

Originally Posted by DavidG

Box pressing, printing and folding machines come in standard sizes.

Well actually they dont. There are mandrels that need to be made for each individual package design, add some tear off tabs etc and it gets rather expensive and messy. Nor does the equipment that makes the various cereals. It is all pretty well bespoke. I spent 16 years in that industry, in the balance between marketers and practicality the engineers nearly always won and the marketers reduced to designing fancy graphics. Its about capital and ROI.

In my Packaging Technology course the golden rule was "the tighter you pack it, the less damage will occur". The physics are easy enough to understand. It is why the branded wheat biscuits are so closely packed. We want the shocks of transport to be absorbed by the outside packaging not the product contents. Think cans of beer, cigarettes, packs of copy paper. Supply chain price pressures force this efficiency. That is also why there is always less damage in branded wheat biscuits. BTW there are two main factories making these in Aust (at least there was 10 years ago), they have different methods of getting the biscuit to its final shape. One uses molds, the other cuts a sheet of biscuit. But the practicality of bowls, competition etc have normalised the size.

As for the stuff in the bags, that subject has been thrashed. You buy by weight. Cushioning has been well demonstrated all over the world. It is inefficient but it is life