Consumer

Stephanie Stowe of Dorchester, Mass., does her food shopping with her-six year-old son Jaden, who loves ice cream and would probably eat it twice a day if left to his own devices.  Though the price has not gone up, the amount being put in the container has gone down.

Companies like Breyers and Edy's have reduced the size of their containers from 1 ¾-quarts to 1 ½-quarts.

Stowe's response, like others, is that it's 'not fair'. 

Consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky of Consumerworld.org said manufacturers have been doing this for years. He explained other products, like a jar of mayonnaise went from 32 ounces to 30 ounces, and that economy-sized margarine went from 48 ounces down to 45 ounces.

Even paper products have been downsized, while maintaining the same price. He explained that the company, Scott, "Still has 1000 sheets, though they made each sheet shorter. They're hoping people won't catch the difference."

A Breyers spokesperson blames the container decrease on an increase in the cost of raw ingredients, especially fresh cream, along with soaring fuel prices saying, "because of these economic conditions, Breyers made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our basic pack."

Nestle company, the maker of Edy's ice cream, was contacted for this report and cited the same increase in the cost of ingredients.  The company said it didn't think consumers would want to pay seven dollars or more for a carton of ice cream, so they reduced the product size instead.