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buran77 | on: Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's
To be honest, for some things, getting a smaller serving and/or higher price is a blessing in disguise - health-wise at least. Same with soda servings where very large cups or bottles encourage higher consumption.
giobox | parent | next
I was genuinely curious to see what the legally mandated calorie/ingredient content labelling was in 1991 on a UK Mars bar, but sadly no pictures of the underside.

While I've no doubts shrinkflation explains a great deal of this, it would be interesting if increased mandatory food content reporting on packaging had even a small effect on reducing the calorie content of confectionery over time, as consumers could more easily compare etc and market responded with products in portion sizes to better fit preferences.

You can even see in the article photo, the more recent modern Mars bar has the calorific content printed on the front, in addition to the big label all UK food has on the rear. The 1991 example does not.

account42 | root | parent
You expect anyone to look at the calorie contents of a candy bar??
insane_dreamer | parent
except that soda is (sadly) one case where the cups have gotten bigger. did they even have 32 oz "extra extra gulp" size 30 years ago?
philipkglass | root | parent | next
The 32 oz "Big Gulp" was introduced by 7-11 in 1976 in Southern California:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gulp

Even bigger sizes arrived in the 1980s:

Called Big Gulp because it was initially the largest such drink available at any retailer, 7-Eleven eventually introduced larger sizes. In 1986, they introduced the 44-US-fluid-ounce (1,300 ml) Super Big Gulp, followed by the 64-US-fluid-ounce (1,900 ml) Double Gulp in 1989 (later reduced to 50-US-fluid-ounce (1,500 ml))...

phil21 | root | parent | next
They were more absurd in the 90's. You'd have the gas station 64oz reusable cups you could use to do unlimited refills for a dollar.

"Super Size" was a 90's thing as well, if I recall. It was basically an arms race of which company could provide the most ridiculously large portions of a cheap product like soda or fries.

Then the PR swung in the 00's due to the obesity epidemic and such stuff was silently rolled back. Likely for both PR and cost reasons. The 32oz drink stuck around though pretty much everywhere.

insane_dreamer | root | parent
ah, ok, good to know! I thought it was a recent phenomenon. 64 oz is absurd!

I only moved to the US ~10 yrs ago and quite unfamiliar with US in 80s/90s

wolvoleo | root | parent | next
Soda is super cheap to make though. It's usually just tap water with some processed sugar and some artificial flavourings.

It's an easy thing to promote more of to divert attention while reducing something else that actually costs money to make.

Or why portions of fries go up when burgers go down in size. Cheapest food item.

Merad | root | parent
Oh yes, the 1990s was the height of massive fast food drinks. Wendy's had 32 oz "biggie" drinks and a 40+ oz "great biggie". McDonalds had "super size" tho I don't recall its volume. Most of those got renamed by the mid 00's and eventually downsized.