tiktok.com/@neilybob, tiktok.com/@pauldesousa
Amid larger conversations about the cost of living and "shrinkflation" — or the practice by brands of reducing product sizes to hide rising costs — several McDonald's customers have taken to TikTok in recent months with a resounding complaint and observation: their Filet-O-Fish sandwiches look smaller than they remembered.
"It was already small, but the Filet-O-Fish has shrunk by I'd say 20%," the user @neilybob said in an October video with 920,000 views.
"That's the new McMinnow," one commenter echoed. "It's now a slider," another said.
Though @neilybob's clip garnered the most viewership, other creators have come forward with similar observations. "This not a optical illusion," said Paul De Sousa, who held up his own sandwich quizzically, estimating it had shrunk by roughly 25%.
@neilybob McDonald's Fish Filet is the latest victim of #shrinkflation #food #fyp #mcdonalds #eating #eat #money #thisiswhywecanthavenicethings #inflation #fastfood #new
♬ original sound - neilybob
Another user, @cheekygoblin, was outraged that her sandwich only came with half a slice of cheese. "What in the shrinkflation is going on here?" they asked. (That said, the McDonald's website notes that half a slice of American cheese is canon for the sandwich — which also includes a patty of fried pollock, signature tartar sauce, and a steamed bun.)
The fast food chain rebuffed any speculation that the Filet-O-Fish has been altered.
"The size and build of the Filet-O-Fish, including a half slice of American cheese, has not changed in decades," McDonald's USA told Business Insider in a statement.
@pauldesousa #shrinkifcation #filetofish #mcdonaldssucks #boycottmcdonalds
♬ original sound - Paul DeSousa
This isn't the first time that the chain has denied claims of shrinkflation. A company spokesperson told Yahoo Australia in August of last year that the size of its burgers hadn't changed.
In fact, the company may actually be heading in the opposite direction. CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNN earlier this month that "having a larger burger" is something that the chain is working on. "That is something that you should expect in the future."
The Filet-O-Fish, for its part, became the chain's first non-hamburger item, introduced nationally in 1965 and originally priced at 29 cents. (Today, prices vary by location, but sit at about $3-4 for most US chains.) It was the brainchild of a Cincinnati franchise owner to serve Catholics abstaining from meat during Lent.
Rising supply costs in the US have pushed several national brands to sneak reductions to their products so that they can keep retail prices the same. Hershey, Burger King, Doritos, and General Mills cereals are only some culprits of this practice. On social media, customers are often the first to notice and sound the alarm on these changes. In August 2022, a TikToker went viral comparing two of the same Quaker granola bars side-by-side, but purchased at different times. Last month, a TikToker noticed Betty Crocker had decreased its boxed cake mix — but had kept its wet ingredients the same, invariably changing the composition of the cake.
Better Crocker confirmed it had made the alteration in an effort to keep its products "affordable," the company told BI.
