Everything is being watered down.

jon81uk

weby72 said:

On a different tack, red wine is definitely being deliberately watered-down - as witnessed by the abv for many (most?) well-known wines from between 12.5% and 13.5% to 10.5% - 11%

They first started with the lowest priced wine (the bargain stuff and own-brand), but by the summer the well-known and best-selling (Hardy's Stamp, Isla Negra, McGuigan, Blossom Hill, etc) had cut theirs.

The sneaky sods have all generally introduced 'premium' new variations on their existing brands with fancy/gold labelling and titles, with the previous abv levels... but for about £2 more than they were charging for the old brands.

Many lagers have been doing similar and Fosters, once one the 'standard 4%' mainstays, has cut to a miserly 3.7% (and you can taste it)

'Drinkflation' I've seen it all referred to as.

I don't think they "water-down" as in add extra water, they just brew to the lower strength.

But its mainly linked to changes to the duty rates I think. The less alcohol, the less tax.

Chrysalis

Yep might be harder for young people to notice it, but I have noticed it in so many products.

Toilet cleaner stuff that decades ago would be thick, is now watery and just slides down into the water.
Pies are hollow with barely any filling.

Sandwich fillers when they first became a thing about 20 or so years back, were using real ingredients, mixed maybe with a thick sauce or salad cream, now they very watery, and rely almost entirely on artificial flavouring. 
Many sauce/cream type products are much more watery than they were decades ago.

Perhaps hard to notice over one "new recipe" cycle, but over decades, the combined effect of all the revisions is really noticeable.

Magnolia

Lets talk mushy peas!  Once upon a time you needed a fork to prise them out of the tin - now you only need to tip and shake a bit for them to run out.

More mushy soup these days.

Oh yes - I forgot about frozen carrot and swede mash - never used to need to drain it after re-heating it.  Far too much water added.

TracyS66

Daddies brown sauce just pours out, you don't have to squeeze the bottle!
Mince pies from Sainsbury's had more pastry than filling! 

Sarahspangles

I’m interested what will happen to Body Shop products under new ownership. I’ve just restocked my favourite shampoo. The largest bottle lasts me 11 months - I know because I can see five years of purchase history in their website. Aqua is always going to be the largest ingredient so it’s easy for them to progressively water it down.

sarah1972

Magnolia said:

Lets talk mushy peas!  Once upon a time you needed a fork to prise them out of the tin - now you only need to tip and shake a bit for them to run out.

More mushy soup these days.

Oh yes - I forgot about frozen carrot and swede mash - never used to need to drain it after re-heating it.  Far too much water added.

Never have I ever had a tin of mushy peas that run out of the tin. I opened a tin of Asda ones the other day and ate with a fork from the tin and the rest came out in a nice big lump. 

Can’t comment on the mash as I don’t buy frozen veg x

andygb

weby72 said:

On a different tack, red wine is definitely being deliberately watered-down - as witnessed by the abv for many (most?) well-known wines from between 12.5% and 13.5% to 10.5% - 11%

They first started with the lowest priced wine (the bargain stuff and own-brand), but by the summer the well-known and best-selling (Hardy's Stamp, Isla Negra, McGuigan, Blossom Hill, etc) had cut theirs.

The sneaky sods have all generally introduced 'premium' new variations on their existing brands with fancy/gold labelling and titles, with the previous abv levels... but for about £2 more than they were charging for the old brands.

Many lagers have been doing similar and Fosters, once one the 'standard 4%' mainstays, has cut to a miserly 3.7% (and you can taste it)

'Drinkflation' I've seen it all referred to as.

Just checked the latest lot of wines from Lidl, which in my opinnion are far better value than the well known Hardys, Blossom Hill etc. They are consistenty between 13% and 14.5% and I have not noticed any difference in their taste, complexity or general quality.

jon81uk

TracyS66 said:

Daddies brown sauce just pours out, you don't have to squeeze the bottle!
Mince pies from Sainsbury's had more pastry than filling! 

pretty sure both of these things have always been the case.
Brown sauce has always been runnier than ketchup and ketchup is runnier than mayo.

EssexHebridean

I use the brand of toothpaste containing baking soda and that is definitely still as thick as it always was - ie, if you don't squish it onto the brush a bit as you squeeze, you'll probably end up having to scrape it off the basin! 

Baked beans and chopped toms I am quite picky about which ones I get as the "value" type brand from the big supermarkets do seem to be pretty watery. if you have a Farmfoods nearby it's worth keeping an eye there for well priced Napolina tomato products, though.

sarah1972

EssexHebridean said:

I use the brand of toothpaste containing baking soda and that is definitely still as thick as it always was - ie, if you don't squish it onto the brush a bit as you squeeze, you'll probably end up having to scrape it off the basin! 

Baked beans and chopped toms I am quite picky about which ones I get as the "value" type brand from the big supermarkets do seem to be pretty watery. if you have a Farmfoods nearby it's worth keeping an eye there for well priced Napolina tomato products, though.

Napolina tomatoes are only 70% tomatoes 😞 supermarket ones average 65%. If you are picky, I would be going for ones like Mutti. X