Breakfast cereal deception

[Dodgy Dovetails]

I suppose this subject is only marginally related to wood - but it certainly is to wood production and wastage.

More than that though, it is relevant to all of us as we all buy breakfast cereal. Likewise we have usually been treated by breakfast cereal manufacturers as mugs.

Here is a photo of an unopened inside packet of Weet-bix bites. And over a third of the cardboard packet it came out of is fresh air! The packet is a lie, and a vastly cynical one, merely there to make us believe we are getting more product than we are.



I'm quite happy to pay whatever the price is for that amount of cereal, what I don't like is paying for the extra amount embedded in the price, not to mention the resource wastage, of all the empty packaging fresh air. It is only there as a deception - a deception that they are forcing us to pay for! Talk about cynicism!

If they are going to have packets that big, well, fill the buggers up and I'll be happy to pay whatever the extra amount is. As things stand they are treating us all like 'king mushrooms.

I'm sure next time you are scanning the breakfast aisle, you'll be thinking about this now!

[wolften]

...does the bag with the weeties weigh 500g as stated (net weight), not including the box<

[Gra]

I suspect the air is like this for the same reason as with chips. It's cushioning for when tha package is shipped, basically so not so many break

[Sebastiaan56]

There are regulations about headspace in food packaging. But most of these products are sold by weight and settling does occur. Consider the machine dumping the cereal into the bag and then the settling that occurs as the box get bounced around on forklifts, in trucks etc.

If you a feeling hard done by ring the manufacturer.

[Sturdee]

I fail to see why this is posted in the Woodwork-general forum and I also fail to see why this is posted at all as the air in the packet is there for the purpose of avoiding crushing during transport.


May be it's to get the poster's post count up.



Peter.

[Big Shed]

I fail to see why this is posted in the Woodwork-general forum and I also fail to see why this is posted at all as the air in the packet is there for the purpose of avoiding crushing during transport.


May be it's to get the poster's post count up.



Peter.

There you go Peter, moved it to a more appropriate forum.

[Dodgy Dovetails]

I fail to see why this is posted in the Woodwork-general forum and I also fail to see why this is posted at all as the air in the packet is there for the purpose of avoiding crushing during transport.


May be it's to get the poster's post count up. Peter.

G'day Peter,

Well I was searching for the right place to post this, but I missed this one "nothing to do with woodwork." I struggled therefore, using 'wood production and wastage" as a skyhook to hang the thread on in a woodwork forum. (Sorry "big shed" it is the second time you have had to relocate a thread of mine.)

My low post count also reveals my site navigational inexperience. (It also reveals something else about me that I am trying to conceal..)

But, in retrospect, a woodwork forum is a perfect place to air my breakfast cereal grievance. Why? Because all of you see things in manual, practical ways, and hence identified the air space as providing "cushioning" for the brittle product. Whether that has been scientifically tested is another matter however, especially as a familiar weet bix or vita brits box (the one we all grew up with) is packed to the gunwhales with product and it has never demonstrated any extra tendency to disintegrate. It is clearly therefore marketing deception hiding under the fig leaf of an undemonstrated protection of the product, one contradicted by other of their products in practice.

It is the public to which the cereal manufacturers are beholden, and so it is with the public that I have brought it up. Because for me, an irritation shared is an irritation lessened. Thanks for that guys!

[Sturdee]

identified the air space as providing "cushioning" for the brittle product. Whether that has been scientifically tested is another matter however, especially as a familiar weet bix or vita brits box (the one we all grew up with) is packed to the gunwhales with product and it has never demonstrated any extra tendency to disintegrate.

Don't know for certain with the weet bix or vita brits box as I've never ever eaten them.

I'm a cornflakes man myself and for that packaging with the cushioning air space is essential. Maybe because of that and other loose cereals all the packaging machines are set up like that for economies of scale.


Peter.

Btw I agree that there are lots of forums and I suppose it must be confusing for a new member.

[Ian Smith]

I'm a cornflakes man myself and for that packaging with the cushioning air space is essential. .

Off course it is, otherwise that flake you get in every bowl which deflects the milk out of the bowl and onto the bench, would be broken and not perform its function

[FenceFurniture]

Don't know for certain with the weet bix or vita brits box as I've never ever eaten them.

I'm a cornflakes man myself and for that packaging with the cushioning air space is essential. Maybe because of that and other loose cereals all the packaging machines are set up like that for economies of scale.

Weet Bix are certainly very tightly packed - nil airspace.

I wonder about the cushioning effect for the likes of Corn Flakes - that would only come into play for
a) the top part of the contents (because the bottom content is all pushed together, and
b) far more relevant - anyone ever buy a box a of Corn Flakes where the box was crushed? All I ever see on the shelves is pristine boxes - the retailers are VERY fussy about whay goes on display. That's the only way the "cushioning" would come into play which would the lead back to point a) where only the top of the contents would be cushioned anyway.

The manufacturers well and truly know that we buy with our eyes. Anyone know what a kilo of Corn Flakes looks like???

That leads me to conclude that it's a ripoff, but there is a worse example. I can't bring the brand to mind, but I think it might be the "Vitawheats" bicsuits lookalike in Aldis (amongst countless others in any store). The cardboard box is (say) 250mm long. The tightly plastic wrapped biscuits inside the box are only 200mm long which means the whole packet can slide around inside the box by 50mm.

So, what is this 50mm of air for, if not to mislead us into the volume of the contents?

And Dodgy, if the amount of air in packaging gets up your nose, you oughta try buying something up here (altitude 1017m). Anything packed at sea level takes on a whole new dimension (literally). Today, being Father's Day, I bought for myself a packet of crisps - they looked like they were going to pop open in front of my eyes!

[FenceFurniture]

May be it's to get the poster's post count up.

There are far more blatant ways of doing that without going to the trouble of taking a photograph, uploading it yadda, yadda. Furthermore, if you look at when DD joined it was ten months ago - apparently not concerned about post count, it would seem.

Even if he (?) was then that's reasonably legitimate when you're under ten posts, so that you can get the benefits that come with >10 posts.

[A Duke]

Weet bix and Vita brits are a regular shape and can be packed to a regular shape (as well as keeping you regular ) but these others and chipies are poured in untill they reach their weight and then settle, they would not fit in initially if there was just enough room for the settled product.
Regards

[Dodgy Dovetails]

The manufacturers well and truly know that we buy with our eyes.

I have an unexpected ally in Fence furniture!

Extremely brittle and thin chips I think have a justification here for the air space left (though twisties don't) but that is a fig leaf as thin as the crisps themselves that the likes of cornflakes, nutra grain, and the very robust weet bix bites above are hiding behind. Less than two thirds of the box is product?? I've just got back from the supermarket in fact, and was having a good old squeeze of alot of them, and most are the same.

Guys, you all know in your hearts it is a deception. Ok, fine, but the extra packaging has costs embedded in the product that we are paying for! Paying twice, once in deception and a second time in actual currency!

He he.. that is a funny one about the exploding high altitude Smith's Chip's packet FF!

[maggs]

I saw a doco recently and they were using dry nitrogen to fill the chip bags. Both to expel oxygen to keep them fresher and provide padding. If it wasn't nitrogen it was something like that. My memory doesn't work so good anymore.
Steve

[ajw]

In a previous life I worked in the food manufacturing industry. Many products, including breakfast cereals are automatically packed using multi head weighing machines that dump combinations of "buckets" into a packing machine. The software calculates which buckets to drop, to reach as close as possible to the correct weight.

check out this video to see the range of products packed this way. Ishida weighers for every application - YouTube

Because of the way the product falls, it is spread out as it enters the bag. Manufacturers try to minimise the material used in the bag, but if they make the bag too short, product gets caught in the seal generating waste. The products really do settle during transport! That said, the cardboard boxes tend to be designed to have the same height on the shelf, with the depth varied to account for density differences. A bigger face panel provides more space for branding and photography.

I don't think the headspace in the pack you've received is excessive, from my years of working with this kind of machinery.


cheers,

ajw