PIZZA Hut in Hong Kong has been shrinking its pizza sizes.

A regular pizza now measures 9 inches, down from 10 inches.

And a large pizza now measures 12 inches, compared to the original 13 inches.

Apple Daily reported that the US pizza chain kept the reductions from its customers while retaining the original prices.

However, this was uncovered when a regular customer noticed that his pizza was thinner and couldn't sufficiently satisfy him.

He called the restaurant to find out what had changed and the restaurant admitted to shrinking its pizza sizes.

The pizza chain apologised and promised to compensate him with free garlic bread or pizza on his next visit.

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Describing himself as a pizza fan, the customer, who gave him his name only as Mr Chan, said he would stop patronising Pizza Hut.

He last visited Pizza Hut's outlet in the Hong Kong's Western District last month where he paid more than HK$100 ($18) for a combo meal containing a regular-sized pizza.

He planned to share the meal with his wife and two children.

But when he tucked into his food, he found that the pizza was smaller.

Mr Chan said: 'Every two months, my family has pizza and we usually go for combo meals. But when we ate pizza two weeks ago, I felt as if the pizza had shrunk by a third.

'Even after eating it, we still felt hungry.'

To verify Mr Chan's story, Apple Daily posed as a customer and called Pizza Hut to order two pizzas - one large and one regular.

Both pizzas were measured and photographed. The findings confirmed what Mr Chan's story.

A Pizza Hut spokesman said that the chain had shrunk its regular-sized pizzas in September, but claimed that this was done to prevent the toppings from falling off.

The spokesman denied the shrinking was done to avoid paying for more expensive ingredients.

When told of Pizza Hut's move, other customers interviewed by Apple Daily said it was unfair.

The company's spokesman said customers were welcome to give their feedback on the issue.

Ms Connie Lau, the Consumer Council's chief executive, said that responsible businesses should explain the composition of ingredients to customers.