Who shrank all the pies? Er, Greggs. (And prices up too)

Greggs has shrunk a wide range of pasties, rolls and donuts at the same time as pushing up its prices, The Grocer can reveal.

The double whammy comes despite the baker forcing the Chancellor to back down in the ‘pasty tax’ row last year.

According to nutritional information on its new website, the baker has shrunk several best-selling savouries including Cornish pasties, steak bakes, bacon rolls, pizzas, chicken subs and cheese & bacon wraps.

The breakfast bacon roll has shrunk by 18%. Pasties and pizzas have gone down by 5%, chicken subs by 6% and cheese and bacon wraps by 7%. Even its famous Steak Bake, relaunched in March with “even more delicious prime steak”, has shrunk its protein content by 15%.

Yum-Yum donuts and Triple Chocolate muffins have slimmed down by 7% and Lemon Drizzle donuts have shrunk 8%.

James Hutchings, a commodity specialist at Mintec, said shrinking products had become a “common tool” used by a “range of food sectors, from confectionery and snack foods to soft drinks, to mitigate the volatility of commodity prices”. He also predicted the trend would continue for the foreseeable future.

But Which? magazine executive director Richard Lloyd said reducing the size of products wasn’t fair on consumers. “Shrinking products can be an underhand way of raising prices because pack sizes shrink but the prices don’t,” he said.

As well as hitting its customers in the stomach, Greggs has also hit them in the wallet.

A spokeswoman for Greggs refused to confirm exactly which products had gone up in price, but on its website Greggs admitted it had “reluctantly changed the price of some of our food with very minor increases”.

Former Greggs CEO Ken McMeikan warned in January that “significant” price hikes on commodities including flour, pork, poultry and beef could mean price increases in 2013.

“Food inflation will have an impact, along with other cost rises like energy,” he said at the time. “We will try and protect our customers but sadly there will be rises in commodities we have to pass on.”

A spokeswoman for Greggs said: “We are constantly reviewing our products and making changes and improvements to them, and we update the product information and nutritional content for our customers on our website and our in-shop information leaflet. Where changes in weight do occur, this is normally the result of improvements to specification such as reducing fat, salt and/or sugar.”

There is one bit of good news for Greggs fans - the size of its signature sausage rolls has remained the same.