- Angry customers left hundreds of one-star reviews on Smart Balance's new formula.
- The company agreed to reverse changes and return to the old formula.
- The formula change is an example of "skimpflation," substituting cheaper ingredients without alerting customers.
Consumers just got a win in the battle against inflation by pushing back on an ingredient change in Smart Balance's butter substitute.
Conagra recently changed the recipe for its Smart Balance butter substitute from 64% vegetable oil to just 39% "to make [it] easier to spread," a spokesperson told Insider. The change was noticed by customers, who left hundreds of angry reviews on the Smart Balance website. 991 of the 1008 reviews for the butter substitute are just one star, with complaints about the formula change.
"Hard pass on this, going to search for an alternative product, super disappointed," one customer wrote. Another said "Product change makes this absolutely disgusting and tasteless! Do not waste your money on it!", with hundreds more with similar complaints.
Conagra took notice of the outcry from customers and agreed to reverse course.
"We have heard the feedback from consumers and have decided to return to the previous recipes in the coming months," the spokesperson told Insider.
The formula change is just one recent example of a trend called "skimpflation," coined by consumer advocate and blogger Edgar Dworsky. Dworsky defines the term as when products are "reformulated in some way, usually with less of the expensive components and often by substituting cheaper ingredients."
Skimpflation goes hand in hand with shrinkflation, another sneaky way companies try to save money. With shrinkflation, manufacturers make subtle changes to products, like making candy bars sold in multipacks smaller than ones being sold individually, or changing the shape of their products so you can barely notice the difference in weight while paying the original price.
Inflation is at a 40 year high, according to the Consumer Price Index, which the US Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to monitor inflation. Inflation, rising labor costs, and growing costs for ingredients are all pushing companies to engage in shrinkflation and skimpflation, though this case shows that customers have some power to fight back against these changes.
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