mini snacks = maxi pounds

by Diane Lofshult

Food for Thought:

More and more food manufacturers are now offering mini versions of their fat-laden snack products; these smaller packages are ostensibly designed to help people resist the temptation they face when presented with larger-sized products. Kraft, Ben & Jerry’s, Pringles and Lays all now offer individually wrapped, single-portion sizes for consumers. But do these mini snacks really help people eat less?

Quite the opposite, says a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. In fact, these reduced-size snacks fool people into thinking they can eat away without consequence. People who already have self-control issues are apparently at particular risk when confronted with mini snacks.

“When self-regulatory concerns were activated, consumers were almost twice as likely to start consuming tempting products from small- as compared to large-package formats, and—if they did—[they] consumed nearly twice as much,” the researchers concluded.