The Great Brexit banger con: How stores and food producers are shrinking sausages and other family favourites AND raising prices to combat soaring import costs following the vote to leave the EU 

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Supermarkets are ‘sneakily’ cutting the size of swathes of popular food and drink items – without making them cheaper.

In one of the worst instances of so-called shrinkflation, the price per kilo of Sainsbury’s sausages has soared by more than 40 per cent. But unless shoppers paid close attention to the packaging, they may not even have noticed.

Stores and manufacturers have turned to the ‘underhand’ practice since the vote to leave the EU sent the pound plummeting, making the price of imported foods and ingredients more expensive.

The effect on some products, such as Terry’s Chocolate Orange and Toblerone, has already been well publicised, but new research shows just how widespread the practice has become.

Sainsbury's sausages: BEFORE - 10 (690g) for £2.75. NOW - 8 (530g) for £3. UP £1.68 per kg (+42%)

Sainsbury's chipolatas: BEFORE - 20 (625g) for £2.63. NOW - 16 (500g for £3. UP £1.80 per kg (+42.6%)

Channel 4’s Dispatches found at least 25 other everyday products, including fresh herbs, sweets, beer, fish fingers, orange juice and hot chocolate had been secretly hiked since the Brexit referendum last June. Even the price of British goods, such as pork or cheese, has risen because they are traded on the global commodities market in dollars. While that is good news for farmers, it makes them more expensive for supermarkets to buy.

The findings come just days after official figures showed that food inflation has hit its highest level since June 2014.

Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference pork sausages saw one of the steepest hidden rises. Last year, shoppers got 20 chipolatas in a pack, weighing 625g, for £2.63. This year, there are just 16 in a pack, weighing 500g, but the price has gone up to £3 – the equivalent of a 43 per cent increase in price.

Tropicana orange juice: BEFORE - 1.75l for £3.50. NOW - 1.65l for £3.50. UP 12p per litre (+6%)

In Tesco, a standard packet of fresh curly parsley has been cut from 35g to 30g, but with no reduction in its 70p price – effectively a 17 per cent price hike.

And online retailer Ocado last year sold Thomas J. Fudge’s gourmet mini savoury biscuits at £2.25 for 80g. Now there is 75g in a pack, but the price has remained the same, meaning an almost seven per cent hidden rise.

A few products surveyed were now cheaper – but not by as much as the pack size had shrunk.

Experts have criticised the tactics as ‘sneaky’. Ratula Chakraborty, of the University of East Anglia, said: ‘Shrinkflation is a sneaky practice because consumers are not expecting any size changes so do not inspect package sizes unless there is a really noticeable difference.

‘In contrast, consumers pay much more attention to prices because they change frequently.

‘Consumers already face the immensely complex task of buying groceries from supermarkets offering 30,000 or more products without having to guess or work out whether sizes have changed. The distraction of so many price promotions, with prices bouncing around, adds to that complexity.’ She argued that the ‘sleight of hand’ was particularly difficult to spot in fresh meat and vegetables, where there is no standard pack size.

Vickie Sheriff, campaigns manager at consumer group Which?, told Dispatches: ‘It’s not on. Consumers have a right to know that the packaging has decreased, that they’re getting less for their money.’

Angel slices: BEFORE - 9 (297g) for £2.35. NOW - 8 (264g) for £2.35. UP 11p per 100g (+14%)

Old Speckled Hen: BEFORE - 12 x 500ml for £12. NOW 12 x 44ml for £12. UP 27p per litre (13.5%)

Tesco hot chocolate: BEFORE - 330g for £1.79. NOW - 300g for £2.35. UP 6p per 100g (+10%) Asda garlic: BEFORE - 69g for 74p. NOW 54g for 70p. UP 23p per 100g (20.9%)

Ian Wright, director general of the Food and Drink Federation, which represents manufacturers, said many producers were facing cost increases of 20 per cent since Brexit. But he denied shrinkflation was an underhand way of passing on costs.

He said: ‘To suggest that sneaky manufacturers or sneaky retailers are somehow causing shoppers difficulties is to massively underestimate the savviness of British shoppers and to impute motives to manufacturers and retailers that just aren’t there.’

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, added: ‘Sizing and pricing of products are regularly reviewed and are impacted by a number of factors, including the cost of raw materials, commercial negotiations with manufacturers and changing portion sizes. Prices and sizes of all products are clearly labelled so that customers can make informed decisions.’

Thomas J. Fudge said its smaller pack sizes were ‘in response to the consumer appetite and usage of premium savoury biscuits’.

Dispatches – Supermarkets: Brexit & Your Shrinking Shop is on Channel 4 at 8pm tomorrow.

'Shrinkflation' is an early warning of the trouble ahead, by JUSTIN KING: A dramatic intervention by the former chief executive of supermarket giant Sainsbury's

In a small way, shoppers are already noticing the effects of Brexit. I say ‘small’ because so-called shrinkflation is a back-door way for manufacturers to charge more by giving us less for the same price.

The shrinking Toblerone is the best known example after its American maker reacted to a post-Brexit slump in the pound by making its chocolate bars ten per cent smaller.

We are now seeing multipacks that have shrunk from six items to five, tubs of ice cream going from 1 litre to 900ml and smaller sausages, among many other examples.

Asda turkey: BEFORE - 573G for £3.50. NOW 500g for £4.50. UP £2.89 per kg (+47.3%)

But while shrinkflation can be seen as an early warning of trouble ahead, real inflation that can be felt in the pocket and shows up on the retail price index, is not far behind.

Premier Foods, which owns Bisto, Mr Kipling and Oxo, is already in discussions with supermarkets over Brexit-related price rises of up to five per cent. Others will follow and it is estimated that five per cent inflation will cost the average family £300 a year more for their groceries.

I speak with some knowledge about the retail sector. I was the chief executive of Sainsbury’s for a decade and increased its sales year on year with very little inflation.

I previously worked at Asda and M&S and know how our supermarkets keep prices low by striking supply deals months in advance and hedging against currency changes.

This has provided a period of grace that has shielded shoppers from the full effects of Brexit. Now that it is coming to an end, we urgently need a real debate about the economic cost of the various Brexit options.

Tesco courgettes: BEFORE - 200g for £1.40. NOW - 160g for £1.40. UP 17.5p per g (+25%)

The abundance, choice and value we enjoy in our supermarkets has been built on EU’s free movement of goods. As the recent lettuce shortages showed, when this is disrupted, problems swiftly follow. At the moment, 40 per cent of our food is imported, mostly from the EU, in thousands of trucks that travel through our ports every day without customs checks or tariff calculations.

Anyone returning from a foreign holiday will see the queues at passport and customs for non-EU citizens. Now imagine the scrum at our freight ports if Britain leaves the single market and customs union, as the Government seems to be demanding.

All this needs to be resolved as soon as possible, or chaos will ensue.

Free movement of services is equally important for our financial and legal services sector, which are major contributors to our economic prosperity.

There isn’t a boardroom in the City that isn’t making contingency plans to move staff away from London if ‘passporting’ rights are lost.

Despite long being a eurosceptic, I voted Remain because I believed that staying in Europe and fighting for reform was our best option.

Our 44 years of membership have brought economic prosperity while the leavers seemed unable to articulate a coherent plan – a lack of clarity that has continued with ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

It is argued that the 17 million who voted for Brexit must now hold sway. But it is simply not true, as Nigel Farage likes to suggest, that they voted for his version of Brexit. And it’s far from clear they voted for the so-called ‘hard Brexit’ which I believe will be disastrous for Britain.

Deciding what shape Brexit will take is the sort of political conundrum our parliamentary system has dealt with for centuries. Opposition and debate is, after all, precisely why we have a Parliament.

Bird's Eye fish fingers: BEFORE - 336g for £2.35. NOW - 280g for £2.50. UP 19.4p per 100g (27.8%)

It is time for the debate to begin in earnest.

First, we need to realise that the timing is not opportune. The year ahead promises elections in many of the key countries of the EU, so we don’t even know who we’ll be negotiating with. 

We also need to recognise that not every detail can be agreed in the two-year timespan, so we need to prioritise the areas that matter most. Every detail will need to be finessed, every negotiating success matched with concessions elsewhere.

Take free movement of people. Last week the Office of National Statistics showed more UK-born residents are in work than ever before, even while significant parts of our economy rely on hard-working Europeans.

For example, more than 57,000 EU citizens work in the NHS, about ten per cent of City workers are from the EU, and around 80,000 EU workers come temporarily each year to work on farms during harvest.

While the Brexiteers might argue we can do that work, the NHS, our care system, farms and food factories cannot function without EU workers. The maths of a cap, or ban, on free movement simply do not add up.

Our economic relationship with the EU, which accounts for nearly half of our overseas trade, will be shaped by the negotiations ahead. I accept that Britain voted to leave, but the terms of Brexit are far from settled.

It is vital therefore that political grandstanding does not overshadow the crucial importance of the economy, jobs and keeping prices low.

That is how the voices of all 46 million of the UK electorate can be heard.