Woman Buys Innovasian’s General Tso’s Chicken. Then She Measures It and Compares the Quantity to the Serving Size: ‘There’s Just 1 Problem’

Innovasian remains a popular frozen grocery staple. The crispy, Asian-style chicken is rich in savory BBQ sauce that can easily be heated, making it a convenient and tasty meal to serve yourself or your family.

Well, that’s what one would expect considering its size for its price point. While cooking the frozen dish on the stove, a Los Angeles-based woman blasts the brand after noticing the amount of chicken allegedly was less than the serving size.

‘How Is This Legal’

“So, I bought this,” TikTok creator Faith (@trainingforamazing) says, standing in her kitchen, holding a folded purple and white box of Innovasian’s General Tso’s Chicken. Then, she points to the fine print.

“It says, ‘three servings in a container,'” she reads out loud, adding. “So, serving size one cup and then servings per container three.”

Next, she moves over to a pan full of the chicken on her stove.

“I just made it. Let’s see what we get,” she says, scooping out six ½ cups of the chicken out of the batch into a separate bowl until the pan is empty. This would equal three cups, as advertised on the package, right?

Well, not exactly.

“Small problem: I made two boxes,” she says, unveiling two identical packages. “So, there should be double the amount here if my measurement is correct. There should be six total servings of one cup. So, six cups and yet, there’s only three.”

Not only did this foil the content creator’s plan to convert this into multiple meals, but she felt misled.

She continues, “Innovasian, where are the other three? What the actual [expletive]?”

The Innovasian Chicken Measurement Test

To prove she’s not exaggerating, Faith measures out the chicken in grams, an entire box equaling 170 grams. When she unveils the tub with the chicken on the scale, there are only several measly pieces.

“We used two [of the ½ cups] plus a few pieces to get to the 170 grams that it shows you,” she says.

Afterward, she scoops two ½ cups along with two pieces, bringing the total to 179 grams.

“It’s a little over but it also leaves one cup of chicken left,” she explains. “I also just measured what was already in my bowl that I had already measured; it was less than a cup.”

Instead of six cups, the content creator ended up with three.

“How is that legal? That is literally half of what they’re saying is on the box,” Faith remarks. “Every brand. They’re trying to cut corners and they’re still trying to charge you the most for it.”

“The math isn’t mathing,” she concludes.

The Feelings Hit Home

Faith’s video garnered over 262,000 views, and she wasn’t the only one to note this observation. Many in her comments section have noticed their recent Innovasian bags were smaller than they remembered.

“Omg, i thought it was just me that realized this about this brand!!!” one viewer commented.

“lol I took a picture of mine because wtf is this??? the chicken used to FILL this entire pan,” a second shared, uploading a picture of roughly less than 20 meat pieces in the center with sauce drowning in the gaps.

“I knew it! the chicken doesnt even fill the bag. the sauce is more than the chicken sometimes,” a third agreed.

“Whenever you buy those they are soooo skimpy with the meat!” a fourth stated.

“I literally bought the orange chicken the other day and it was the big box and there was nothing in it,” a fifth recalled.

Of course, this isn’t a new concept. Last year, a Redditor vented in the r/frozendinners subreddit, unveiling how their 3-cup chicken box only made 1. Like them, others have taken notice, offering explanations as to why there’s such a discrepancy.

Many claimed the box is calculated to “[include] the sauce,” and “use the weight of the food frozen on frozen items.” The company hasn’t announced if this is how they weigh their products or if they have shrunk.

How Do Brands Get Away with Shrinkflation?

After the pandemic, shrinkflation massively emerged. This practice of quietly reducing the size of a product while keeping the same price or increasing it has brought people’s attention online. A quarter-full bag of On the Border tortilla chips, smaller Cheesecake Factory cheesecake portions, and one less New York Bakery Texas Toast slice are a few examples that customers have brought to light. This begs the question: is this legal?

Unfortunately, it is. According to Babson College, companies are legally required to update labels on product changes, though they’re not obligated to advertise it. As long as the updated label is on the item, it’s completely allowed. All of this is in a bid to maintain profit margins as production costs increase.

On the flip side, there is a way for customers to prevent being completely blindsided: check unit prices if available. While NPR states that only 19 states require stores to post unit prices, you can calculate it using your cell phone by dividing the total price and the package amount. Moreover, another telltale sign is usually a design revamp.

@trainingforamazing Watch me crash out over #innovasian #consumergoods #costofliving #consumerprotection #capitalism ♬ original sound – Faith

The Mary Sue reached out to Faith via TikTok comment and direct message as well as Innovasian via press email.

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