Supermarket lying

[Mycatisalwaysangry]

I used two packs of mince beef yesterday and they both had less beef than what stated on the packaging. I thought it was because I froze it.

Today I was weighing my food and it’s absolutely clear that what’s written on the
package is not what’s inside it.

Has it ever happened to you? I feel very betrayed as a customer.

I did not freeze the salmon, don’t know why people think that.

The orange peel do look like frozen chips! I bought them as a present for my husband when I was abroad two weeks ago, but I won’t say where as it would be very outing. There also were (stress on past tense) lemon peel slices covered in dark choc in the same packaging. Husband got very few left when he came home last night 🤣

About the scales, we will have to agree to disagree. What some people are saying is that they must wrong in the salmon case because they can’t be right in the other cases.

Thank you, this is very interesting.

This is what I’m thinking. I’ll buy it again to weigh it and see if it was a one off or not. I like that product, it is a shame if I have to change my shopping because of a distrust in the company.

I feel like this might be the adult equivalent of kids watching kids unwrap things on YouTube!

Mysteriously compelling.

I admire your dedication op. It's the sort of thing I'd moan about if I realised but never actually get around to doing anything about it.

Well, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that all supermarkets everywhere do something similar. 10g x X million packets daily is a huge collective saving. It seems trivial but as a PP said, it’s not fair and most likely, weighted in favour of the supermarket (ie the consumer gets less), rather than a generous extra sliver or slice for Joe Public.

Anyone remember the scene in ‘To the manor born’ .
Inflation is about 10%, I can’t believe loads of people don’t care about paying for food they aren’t getting.

@Mycatisalwaysangry - we think you froze it because in one of your posts at about 3 o'clock yesterday, you said you froze it??!

I could not just quote it because it's a quote within a quote, but here you go:

"Yes I have. Adding the packaging to the overall weight is cheeky! However that was frozen before (defrosted when I used it) so that could have messed with the weight, though given today's weight it might not have."

I know which supermarket it is.

If the packet hasn't been opened, the frozen weight should be the same as the defrosted weight.

Please check it again, i
im quoting someone asking me about the frozen meat there, it’s really clear.

If you are buying something like a swede or pack of 2 lettuces, the weight might be quite a lot different.

I bought two bundles of asparagus from an online supermarket, weight supposedly 160 grams each and one seemed a bit light so I weighed it. 110 grams. The other was spot on.
It was an expensive product (but very nice ) so the 50 gram shortfall, at nearly 30 pct less than it should be, made quite a difference. I complained, with photos.
They refunded me an amount which made the underweight package a more reasonable price, so I would definitely complain, OP.

@Mycatisalwaysangry - ahhh, fair enough - I'd only read your posts, not the entire thread after the first several posts... (so much interest in a missing 10g of smoked salmon!! 🤣) so I had thought you were referring to the salmon...

This is what I’m thinking. I’ll buy it again to weigh it and see if it was a one off or not. I like that product, it is a shame if I have to change my shopping because of a distrust in the company

I honestly can't cope. It's 10 g! 10!

2 and 1/2 teaspoons of sugar, 10 paper clips, 5 playing cards.....that is what we are talking about here. MINISCULE! What a load of flaff over nothing.

I needed to buy some cheese today, so I picked 4 400g packs and weighed them. Two were 408g, one was 404g and one was 400g.
I also weighed some cabbages and bought the heaviest.
The self-service checkout said that the cabbage was 1.57 heavier than the expected weight.

yes, I should get a life

Wow… 😴😴😴😴😴😴 can’t believe you weigh your food to check. The word tight comes to mind.

You don't think 5 playing cards would make a difference? I think one missing card would make a difference to many games and would render a deck inadequate.

It's 10 percent of the overall product! It's the equivalent of buying a 2kg pack of chicken fillets and finding that you were 200g short, which would be a whole meal's worth of difference.

Freezing is bound to affect the weight.

"PP have stated product weights usually based on an average. I can't imagine when they grow the salmon they specify they be grown to a size to produce a fillet exactly 90g In mass...."

This is almost a 10% deficit. It's like buying 10 bars of chocolate but only being given 9. They should charge by weight if they can't get closer to the stated weight than a 10% deficit, particularly for expensive things like smoked salmon, meat etc. OP, I'd have been just as annoyed as you, and the email you received doesn't address the issue at all.

Am I the only one that didn't know about the "E" thing?

Don't think I've ever really noticed the "E" before,

We need people like @Mycatisalwaysangry because if all consumers took your attitude, the food industry would be taking us for mugs by not supplying accurately measured goods.

UK government has set laws that our food industry and those supplying to us must adhere to - almost certainly harmonised across EU and let's bloody hope they keep those standards now we've left EU and don't let the food industry ride roughshod over U.K. citizens.

Think bigger picture - it isn't about "being tight", it's about ensuring we can trust the industry in all senses (accurate claims about what they're selling us to feed our families including quantities and ingredients).

I think your method of calibration is fine, OP. If most packaged food weighs at it’s stated weight, your scales are almost certainly fine and it’s the salmon (and mince before it) that’s off, not the scales. Though note some scales are accurate at lower weights but not so accurate at higher weights (or vice versa).

If you want an accessible way to calibrate you can use coins, which tend to be removed from circulation if they get so worn they are no longer their standard weight. 10p coins, for example, are 6.5 gm each.

About 30 years ago when I was studying engineering, we worked on some calibration exercises. Our lecturer was from the food science department and he claimed many food manufacturers calibrated their weighing scales to be at the bottom end of the margin of error allowed by trading standards in order to benefit form that small percentage difference as food production is so low margin. However, that shouldn’t lead to a 10% difference as the margins are much lower than that (as PP has said).

Thank you, this is really interesting and helpful!

Of course I’m tight with the supermarket. I don’t owe them anything, they are not my friends, I’m paying them for a service. If I don’t realise what’s happening that’s that, but if I do and don’t act it’s on me if they take the piss the next time for whatever it is, weight, ingredients stated, whatever.

The other day I was coming home from picking up the children. There was a bus waiting for children to get out of a local museum. (Happens all the time) It was parked perpendicularly in front of my parking spot so I could not park. The children were still in the museum. I hooted twice, nothing. Hooted again, he clearly looked at me but didn’t move. Stopped the car, took off my seatbelt, got out of the car, went to his window (bloody pain when you only want to go home) and he told me to wait one minute. I (half yelled) that I didn’t want to wait and that he shouldn’t be there in the first instance, and started taking photos of the parked bus. He left and most likely thought I was a bitch. Now that is ‘one minute’ every single time they park there. Is it fine? Should I have ‘been kind’ and waited? I think it’s the same principle and about holding boundaries with people/companies who should not do what they are doing.

As for wasting salmon if I request that the packet contains what it says it does, it’s smoked salmon, not fillets or whole fish. They don’t take a slice of ten gr from another salmon and throw away the salmon to make up ‘my salmon’. Smoked salmon is sold in very thin slices (that are bloody hard to separate!) so it’s possible to do the right thing without wasting any animal.

As for wasting salmon if I request that the packet contains what it says it does, it’s smoked salmon, not fillets or whole fish. They don’t take a slice of ten gr from another salmon and throw away the salmon to make up ‘my salmon’. Smoked salmon is sold in very thin slices (that are bloody hard to separate!) so it’s possible to do the right thing without wasting any animal.

Even if they had to trim to make it the right weight, food manufacturers don’t throw the trimmings away. They’d get used in smoked salmon mouse or something. Manufacturers don’t waste stuff, they’re supper efficient.

I weigh all my food because I calorie count and I have noticed how many things are below the weight stated.

I'm with you op