She Called Out A Popular Brand For Decreasing The Amount Of Cake Mix Sold In A Box
In recent years, manufacturers have been quietly reducing the size of their packages without lowering prices.
This practice is called “shrinkflation.” As companies grapple with high inflation, which has given way to rising costs for packaging, labor, transportation, and ingredients, they have cut back on the ounces in products like yogurt, cereal, corn chips, and boxed cake mixes.
TikToker and baker Malina Lee (@sweetgrace.sa) has noticed that the food brand Betty Crocker has decreased the amount of their Super Moist white cake mix after purchasing a few boxes for a wedding cake recipe she offers at her bakery.
In a viral video that has amassed 7.4 million views, she discusses the most alarming part of the change: that Betty Crocker has neglected to adjust the measurements of the rest of the ingredients or inform consumers about the new recipe.
Malina claims that the new cake mix is 14.25 ounces, while the original was 16.25 ounces. It may not seem like much of a difference to the average home cook, but if you’re an avid baker, you know that baking is a science. Even a slight change can alter the taste, texture, and quality of the final product.
“So, really and truly, the craziest part is that they did not reduce the liquid, fat, or the egg amount. They just reduced the dry ingredients,” said Malina of the white boxed cake mix.
She displayed pictures onscreen of the new and original cake mixes side by side, pointing out that the new one has one cup of water, a half cup of oil, and three eggs. The old one had the same number of ingredients, which she says would completely change the texture of the cake.
The company also reduced the baking time by one minute and the serving size by one gram in the new cake mix.
Strangely enough, there was an increase in the calorie amount. She noted that there was more sugar, carbohydrates, and sodium per serving, even though the serving size was smaller.
Photo 235427343 © Evgenyatamanenko – Dreamstime.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“I suspect that what [Betty Crocker] did is that they reduced the amount of dry ingredients, and they reduced it as much as they could without having to change the wet ingredients and the egg amount because they didn’t really want people to pick up on the fact that they changed the amount of cake mix in the box,” said Malina.
She also explained that in order to compensate for the smaller amount, she would have to open up a second box of cake mix and remove 60 grams of the dry ingredients to make one whole boxed cake mix, or she would have to figure out how to properly reduce the ratio of oil, water, and eggs.
Malina concluded her video by stating that the change was “unacceptable” and “unethical” and that Betty Crocker, one of the biggest cake mix producers in the world, owed it to their customer base to be transparent.
@sweetgrace.sa #greenscreen anyone else noticed this about their cake mixes? ??? #sweetgracesa #fyp #viral #cakemix #bettycrocker
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