Half-empty food packages are wasteful and harming consumers and the environment, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The non-profit advocacy group is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state attorneys general to crack down on what's known as "Slack Fill.” That's the extra space that is inside your Hamburger Helper or Ginger Snaps where there is no food.

Sometimes food settles, so there is a little extra space. But the group says manufacturers are adding a lot of extra space so consumers think they are getting more product -- something they wouldn't do if consumers could see inside the packages. 

The groups says it's a form of deception that is also a big environmental waste. Not only is there all that extra packaging, but it takes two shipping containers to move food that should only require one. And this could be illegal. There are federal regulations meant to restrict the amount of slack fill to the amount that helps protect the product inside or where there is settling.

“It would be disheartening, even shocking, if it weren’t so commonplace,” said Michael F. Jacobson, the group's executive director, in a statement.  “But as consumers we’ve almost come to expect that our food packages will be half full of food and half full of air.  Slack fill is just one trick that food marketers employ to make us thing we’re getting more for our money than we are.”

So, have you noticed extra space in your products lately?

Photo courtesy of Center for Science in the Public Interest