It has come to my attention that manufacturers have completely missed the whole single serve concept. In fact the whole size thing has confused them. Whether it be the quantity or count, somehow there is either never enough or too much.
Let's start, simply, by going through the departments of a store.
Produce. There is a new trend at the supermarkets and farmers markets in which an employee stuffs cherries, grapes or the like into a specialized bag, seals it and leaves you to either brake the seal or buy 3 lbs. worth. Yeah, I can get bananas, and other fruits and vegetables based on how much I'm going to eat, that euphoria ends with carrots and celery. They are bagged on a plantation in Guacamola and can't be separated under penalty of, 'I don't know'. Amazingly they charge by the pound and have an exact pound weight on the bag, nifty trick. Want a salad with your dinner? Grab a head of lettuce, if you need ten. Oh wait, bagged salad. Wow, small bag feeds 2-3 and family size feeds 3-4 (best family size ratio in the store).
Meat. Try finding chicken, pork or beef in a single serving pack. It's the normal size or Family Pack. Family Pack? Really? What normal family eats 3 lbs. of chopped meat, 15 pork chops or 20+ chicken parts at a sitting? They should either call it the 'call your doctor first pack' or the 'If you bought a huge ass freezer pack'. Purdue thought they would cover all of their bases and call their version 'Perfect Portions' or 'Individually Wrapped'. Depending on whether you go to the typical store or the warehouse variety, this is the pack for families who have between 6 and 20 individuals and each wish to unwrap their own raw piece of chicken.
General food. Let's look at juice boxes. Ask yourself how many juice boxes does a typical kid drink when they are thirsty? How about an adult? The answer varies based on the juice box. They come in sizes from 3 to 8 ounces. 3 ounces is a dose, not a drink. To make up for this slight liquid inadequacy, at wholesale clubs, they package them neatly in case quantities of thirty six or forty eight. I'm thinking, this is a place for consolidation. In a wierd reversal, they do have single serve baked goods and cookies. Really? If we were honest with ourselves, the regular size would be called single serve, no matter what size. That's like saying I have single serve money. You don't want a lot, just take a few pennies and leave the bills.
The Deli. The single serve mecca of the supermarket. That is until the person behind the counter gets annoyed at you ordering a quarter or eighth pound of each item. At best they cut it thick, or press on it. At worst, don't ask.
Frozen foods. Except for the gallons of ice cream, no single serve here. Yeah, I'm psychic, I know you are all thinking, 'Reed, this aisle has loads of single serve meals with pictures of beautiful gourmet, looking, food on them.'. Well, technically the portion sizes are single serve. Health wise, these meals could give daily allowance of shit to an army. You might as well eat a tub of lard, pound of salt and a can of processed cheese 'food', the nutritional value(and probably ingredients) are close to the same. Oh, about the pictures. If you've ever had frozen food that looks like the picture, email me. I won't hold my breath.
The Dairy. The dairy is pretty serving size friendly. You can buy milk, eggs, cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. All in various accommodating sizes. Unfortunately, some more reverse single serve faux pas. The incredible shrinking yogurt containers. These are usually sold in four packs(one serving?). Pretty soon these flimsy plastic containers won't even be able to fit the word, 'Yogurt' on them and will just say, 'Yo' and a catchy name. Oh No, it's already happening. The second is the 6.0928973 ounce smoothie that after sticking to the sides of the container is actually 3.2 ounces. Aren't smoothies supposed to be healthy? Who can drink just one at that size? What they need is a liter teflon bottle.
There are two solutions to these problems. The first, we all need to by huge ass freezers and miles of plastic wrap.
The second is a little more practical and more for the manufactures than the rest of us. Standardize the size of food packaging.
Make a single serving enough for one person, couple serving enough for two and family size enough for four. Anything bigger could be called large family or lard ass size. It would make dinner parties easier to plan for and maybe even, gasp, make people eat healthier portions.
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