Dani (@danibutmakeitphantom) explains that he always keeps a variety of Knorr chicken-flavored rice and pasta packets stocked in his kitchen.
In a viral video, he films himself noticing that the new packages on the shelf don’t have the same label as the old ones. “That’s [expletive] it. They stole my Knorr, man,” he exclaims, holding the package up to the camera.
What’s changed with the Knorr chicken-flavored rice and pasta packets?
Dani explains that he cooks these packets often enough to know the instructions by heart.
“This [expletive] idiot that I am always likes to check the packet to make sure it really does call for two cups of water,” he says. “Two cups of water, right? Yeah, yeah… I’m checking again.”
The new packet has thrown his routine into disarray. For starters, the new packet indicates that the water amount has increased to 2¼ cups, and the cooking time—which he knew was seven minutes—is now 15.
“Something’s off,” he says. “It’s the same product. I bought the same kind. I don’t like this.”
Then he notices another troubling detail on the front of the package.
“My buddy pointed it out to me. ‘No artificial flavors or preservatives,’” he reads on the old packaging. Then he points to the same section on the new packaging, where that statement has disappeared. “They can’t even promise that anymore.”
On July 30, a consumer named Charles Lisa sued Unilever in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over those four words on the old packets, arguing that the presence of citric acid, sodium citrate, and disodium inosinate made the claim “no artificial flavors or preservatives” misleading. A second class-action lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn, makes a similar argument.
“They don’t cost $1 anymore either”
Many other people have noticed significant changes in their favorite snack bags.
“They [expletive] messed with my creamy garlic shells. Did they switch to cavatappi? And it doesn’t even [expletive] taste the same anymore,” one person commented.
“They’ve very clearly changed the ingredients,” said another person. “I’ve been cooking these meals religiously ever since I moved out on my own. I noticed it right away; this [expletive] tastes different and looks different. I ended up adding their chicken broth and extra butter to enhance the flavor [because] it’s bland now.”
Another person said, “Broccoli and cheese used to [have] chunks of broccoli. Seriously, for a few years now, it’s been nothing but broccoli powder.”
One person quipped: “We used to be a real country.”
Is this an example of “skimpflation”?
Consumers who scrutinize the back of the package and cry foul are now a common sight. In fact, it’s hard to name a popular brand that hasn’t changed for the worse—at least in the eyes of consumers—over the past decade.
When Campbell acquired Rao’s in 2024, fans swore that the marinara sauce in the new jars tasted less refined. CEO Mark Clouse stepped in publicly to deny the rumor: “We won’t touch the sauce,” he said.
The change in ingredient quality that customers fear has a name. Consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky calls it “skimpflation.” It refers to the phenomenon where “a manufacturer has reformulated one of its products, usually with cheaper ingredients,” according to NBC Boston. Dworsky notes that these substitutions are generally “very difficult to detect.”
Subplot News reached out to Dani via a comment on TikTok and a private message, as well as to Knorr’s parent company, Unilever, via email, to request additional information. We will update this article if they respond.
@danibutmakeitphantom
The article “A man buys new Knorr rice packets. One of them looks suspicious—then he reads an alarming message on the packaging: ‘We must fight’” was first published on Subplot News.
A man buys a packet of Knorr. It seems strange to him. Then he reads a disturbing message on the package: “You have to fight.”
