Shrinking nougat: smaller bars and more sugar in Spain

Nougat bars are shrinking while boxes stay the same: the packaging trap

The nougat bar inside the box occupies less than half the cardboard space. This is not an isolated case: anyone who has bought three different brands of nougat this year has encountered the same pattern. The box maintains its dimensions, but the product has been reduced in width and thickness. The result is a feeling of being cheated, a sensation that doesn't happen with chocolate bars because transparent plastic doesn't allow for such deception. Cardboard, however, does.

Complaints were quick to surface. The most common diagnosis: it is pure appearance. The large box suggests more product than there actually is, and consumers pay for perceived volume rather than actual grams. The only effective recommendation is to look at the price per kilo, not the price of the box.

From 300g to 150g: the bar that gets thinner every year

The evolution is traceable. Classic turrón de Alicante (traditional Spanish nougat) used to come in two-bar packs of 300 grams. Today, that format is rare. The standard has dropped to 250g, then 200g, and now there are 150g bars. When the packaging still holds two bars, they are simply thinner. The cardboard remains the same; the content does not.

This sequence repeats in other products: first, the price is held steady while volume is reduced; later, the price is gradually raised. It is textbook hidden inflation applied to Christmas sweets. It is "shrinkflation" in its purest form.

The case of Nevaditos: identical boxes, shrinking contents

The most graphic anecdote comes from a consumer and long-time fan of Nevaditos (traditional Spanish meringue-based sweets). The box hasn't changed in decades. What has changed is the interior: they used to be stacked to use all the space, wrapped in simple paper. Now they come in a plastic tray with indentations shaped like the sweets, wasting more than half the volume. Many of these gaps are empty: just one or two pastries where there used to be a full row.

The parallel with nougat is exact. The packaging has become mere scenery. The cardboard and molded plastic do not protect the product: they disguise it.

More sugar, less almond: quality is also shrinking

Size is not the only cutback. More than 50% of the nougat can be sugar, according to several circulating analyses. Almonds are expensive, and glucose syrup is cheaper. Some claim that even conventional sugar isn't used, opting instead for glucose syrup, which is more economical and has a worse nutritional profile.

Chocolate nougat escapes the cardboard deception because it comes in transparent plastic packaging. But it has also lost: long-time fans remember that classic Suchard was something else. Now it tastes like sugar, and even many store brands outperform it. The list of products trinc this path is long: donuts, cookies, muffins, chocolates. More sugar, less product, saved costs.

The alternative: price per kilo and convent nougat

Faced with deceptive packaging, the shared solutions are practical. Always check the price per kilogram, which is usually printed in the smallest possible font on the label. Buy in bulk or in small packages where the weight is honest. Another growing trend is artisanal nougat from convents and local bakeries, where the almond is real almond and the sugar is real sugar, without syrups or additives.

For those seeking a specific reference, a high-end hard nougat declares 68% almond and 32% honey; the soft variety, 72.5% almond and 22.5% honey. Nothing else. That is the standard that supermarket nougat has abandoned.

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The prediction, with reservations: if cardboard continues to lie and almonds continue to disappear, nougat will end up like industrial panettone—a product only bought by those who haven't tasted the real thing. Tradition isn't saved by wrapping. It is saved by almonds.