Grocery rip-off costs families millions
IT is the great grocery rip-off that is costing Australian families millions.
In a special investigation, News Corp weighed the contents of a typical family’s weekly supermarket shop and found a staggering 26 per cent of items were under the advertised weight.
A brand new pair of digital kitchen scales were used to weigh products including fresh vegetables, frozen berries, meat, dairy, dry goods and cleaning products.
Thirty products across 25 brands were measured with the worst — a 500ml Fountain tomato sauce — coming in 10 per cent less than was stated on the packaging.
A box of 20 Smiths Crinkle Cut chips of various flavours was advertised as weighing 380g but once all of the packaging was removed the chips weighed only 369g.
Out of five tins of fish weighed, three were underweight; Tassal roasted salmon purported to weigh 95g but once it was out of the tin weighed only 88g.
A can of Coles Yellowfin Tuna Chunks was three grams under and a can of Sirena Tuna with Basil infused oil was two grams under.
A jar of Val Verde passata only had 683 of the advertised 700g and Tamar Valley Mango yoghurt was seven grams short of the 163 promised.
The results are backed up by the latest annual report from the National Measurement Institute, which revealed that of 10,000 businesses audited 34 per cent were not meeting their legal obligations.
Some of the worst offenders by business type were fruit and vegetable shops with 53 per cent of those audited found to be inconsistent with their weights, 45 per cent of bakeries and 41 per cent of confectionary retailers.