Incredible weight differences: fraud in the supermarket or just a mistake?

Incredible weight differences: fraud in the supermarket or just a mistake?

Simmering, Österreich - An outraged customer recently discovered an unmistakable weight difference in a product of a popular discounter. A pack of spare ribs, which was awarded 623 grams in a Viennese supermarket, only weighed 484 grams when weighing on a vegetable scale. The horrified buyer, Marianne P., reported that she carried out a simple test while shopping and was amazed at this almost 140 gram difference. "That can't be," she expressed her displeasure about the misleading weight information on the packaging, such as krone.at reported.

A similar incident occurred at Aldi in Great Britain, where a customer discovered a deviation of 367 grams when weighed a one-kilogram package. Instead of the expected weight of one kilogram, the scale showed only 633 grams. The customer turned to the discounter via Twitter and asked the question: "Where are the other 367 grams of the pasta?" Aldi's answer was that the customer could return the pack or apply for a refund, which caused a lot of excitement on social media, such as tz.de reported.

legal requirements and tolerances

Such weight differences also raise questions regarding the legal requirements. According to the consumer center for Germany, underfilled food packaging up to a certain extent is permitted. In the case of food with a nominal filling quantity between 500 and 1,000 grams, a deviation of up to 15 grams is permitted. In the case of the pasta pack, however, the lack of content significantly exceeds this limit, which makes the situation particularly annoying for affected customers. Aldi pointed out that the weight information is based on the dry matter of the products and that they adhere to the legal provisions that are checked regularly.