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Kraft Heinz’s move is notable because it highlights an important nuance in the ongoing fight for grocery shoppers’ dollars. Many fear the days of Big Food are numbered, as consumers increasingly want to eat totally healthy foods such as kale and broccoli instead of packaged snacks and sodas. But the truth is that the key for packaged food and beverage makers is to simply find a way to make their unhealthy stuff slightly less awful than before.

In other words, by using, say, more natural ingredients or fewer preservatives, these companies can give people an excuse to eat what they want to eat, without feeling bad about it.

Perhaps the best indication of this practice is the number of “better for you” claims popping up on packaged foods in recent years. For instance, 20 percent of new packaged food and beverage products contained labels claiming no additives or preservatives last year, up from 13 percent in 2011, according to research firm Mintel, which has been tracking new product introductions since 1964. Likewise, nearly 30 percent of new products contained some sort of allergen claim, such as soy-free or dairy-free, up from 11 percent in 2011.

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But it’s not all about label claims.

Take Coca-Cola’s introduction of smaller-sized bottles and mini-cans of Coke. While sales of its 2-liter bottles are declining, its smaller bottles are growing by 15 percent a year. “It’s a perfect way for a product slammed by people for health reasons to offer something to consumers that is a permissible indulgence,” said Lynn Dornblaser, director of innovation and insight at Mintel.