Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Madeleine Dean demand food and beverage CEOs put a stop to ‘shrinkflation’

Two Democratic lawmakers are demanding that some of the biggest food and beverage companies stop engaging in “shrinkflation” — the practice of reducing product sizes while charging prices that are the same or higher.

In pointed letters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania accused General Mills, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo of engaging in a “pattern of profiteering” through shrinkflation and by “dodging taxes.” The letters, sent Sunday afternoon and shared first with NBC News, cite tactics the companies have used in recent years to increase their bottom lines.

General Mills, for example, reduced the sizes of many cereal boxes in 2021, “including decreasing ‘Family Size’ Cocoa Puffs from 19.3 ounces to 18.1 ounces while charging the same price,” the letter to General Mills Chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening read. It added: “Then, from mid-2021 to mid-2022, General Mills hiked prices five times, and in 2023, your Group President of North American Retail bragged that the company was ‘getting smart about how we look at pricing.'”

Coca-Cola has downsized its products, too, said the letter to Chairman and CEO James Quincey, and it is “selling less soda for the same price.” The same with PepsiCo, which “replaced its 32 oz Gatorade bottle with a 28 oz bottle for the same price.”

“Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it is exploitation,” the letter to PepsiCo head Ramon Laguarta read.

Spokespeople for General Mills, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. PepsiCo has denied changing bottle sizes for profit; a spokesperson told CNBC in July that the 28-fluid-ounce bottle of Gatorade has existed for over a decade and that selling it more widely was part of the company’s long-term strategy, not a response to the current economic environment. Coca-Cola has explained its smaller bottles as a way to offer lower price points to budget-conscious consumers.

Regardless, Warren and Dean also accused the companies of funding lobbying for Republican-led corporate tax breaks in 2017 that promised a trickle-down effect but instead “incentivized price gouging” because “corporations raised prices to pad their profits, knowing that lower corporate tax cuts meant they would get more back on each dollar of price increase,” all three letters said.

Citing a February analysis from the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the letter to…