A British cleaner is going viral after an astonishing find in a house clearance that shines a light on the sneaky effect of “shrinkflation”.

Victoria Gordon, who runs cleaning service Pocket Rockets, is getting global media attention after posting a photograph to her business Facebook account of a “vintage” Mars Bar she found while clearing out a house in the town of Scunthorpe.

The 65.2-gram chocolate bar had a best-before date of 1991, making it at least 28 years old.

Gordon posted a snap of her discovery alongside one of today’s Mars Bars, which weighs just 40 grams.

She later told the BBC the Mars Bar turned up while Pocket Rockets was cleaning out a hoarder’s house.

“Everything we were rooting through was decades old,” she said.

“This Mars Bar stood out to me because as I picked it up it was nearly the whole length of my hand.

“I was like, ‘Wow, look at the size of that!’.”

Gordon’s story on the BBC has drawn hundreds of comments, with many people highlighting the size difference between the two bars.

“I think the term is shrinkflation,” one poster wrote.

“That’s how they have increased their profits … smaller bar, bigger profit,” wrote another.

A third said: “Shrinkflation and greedflation in action.”

A Mars spokesperson told the BBC there had been “a number of updates” to bar sizes and pack formats in the past three decades “to reflect consumer demand, alongside considering wider external factors such as manufacturing costs and the price of cocoa”.

The Mars Bar comparison is just the latest confirmation that shrinkflation is indeed a thing.

Earlier this year, consumer group Choice found that Easter eggs weren’t immune. The price of a 24-pack of Cadbury’s hollow eggs rose to $18 this year, from $12.50 in 2024 – and there’s now only 20 eggs.

Choice said the “less costs more” trend had also extended to hot-cross buns, while data from price comparison platform Zyft found the price of Cadbury and Lindt Easter bunnies and eggs had jumped by as much as a third in the past 12 months.

“The glass and a half doesn’t even apply to their blocks anymore shrinkflation means its now a glass and a half per 1.2 blocks lol,” one Reddit commenter wrote in response.

Nor is it restricted to sweet treats. Previous investigations found that products such as cereal, biscuits, chips and bathroom cleaners were all increasing in size but not in price. They included home-brand items sold by major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths.

While shrinkflation is clearly not new, it hits particularly hard during a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by interest rate rises and soaring fuel prices.

It’s also in the sights of the federal government. Assistant Minister for Treasury Andrew Leigh has previously called the practice a “cunning trick” by manufacturers to force consumers to pay more for less.

“Shrinkflation is frustrating because it happens quietly. The box, the bottle, the tub looks the same, but the contents have changed,” he said.

“Clearer labelling and consistent unit pricing won’t end the practice, but they will make it easier to see what’s happening.”

The federal government released a consultation paper last September outlining options to help consumers make more informed choices. They include making unit price displays more readable, fining non-compliant retailers, and forcing supermarkets to inform shoppers know when a product gets smaller.