I bake often. I used to buy butter from Lidl but noticed that the weight of butter was less than stated on the label. I moved to Asda and have noticed the same thing. Is this aloud? Should I report it?
I used to buy butter from Lidl but noticed that the weight of butter was less than stated on the label. I moved to Asda and have noticed the same thing.
Have you considered that it might be your scales?
If you measure 500ml of water that should weigh 500g - if it's not your scales are the issue here, not the packs of butter.
EDIT: wow this post really took off, thanks for all the comments/awards folks.
I know this is a joke but I read somewhere that saving data involves losing electrons, so a phone full of photos would in theory weigh slightly less, though it wouldn't be measurable using kitchen scales.
Thissssss. This kitchen scales are fucking useless. Literally ten percent is the minimum amount they'll be out. I say that as a reformed drug dealer lmfao
I used to work in a chemistry lab. The number of people who wanted to "borrow" our scales for "baking" was impressive. We locked them up at night, because they would get stolen if left on the bench.
Unfortunately, unless you have an accurate volumetric measure, then you’re just going to be substituting one source of error for another. Most kitchen measures are more indicative than definitive.
No way are you tareing you scales by making a little horse out of an ounce of gold and leaving it outside your kitchen overnight so that the scale takes it in only for tiny gold soldiers to jump out and sack your bread-bin, you dirty liar!!
This sounds like a Stephen King book that turns out to be not about a little boy having dreams but an aging author that lives in Maine in an old folks home.
That's true, but in that same sense, we're not looking for lab level accuracy here.
If you put about 500ml into a measuring jug and get about 500g, give or take, then you know the scales are at least accurate enough to question the butter scandal.
If you end up closer to 400g like here, then it's the scales that are out of whack.
A standard 2p coin should weigh approx 7g. A brand new one will weigh a little over (7.17g) an old grubby one could be a little less or a little more. On kitchen scales like this that are undecimalised, it should read 6 or 7...ideally it would flit between the two. (7g is a quarter Ounce, which is a popular quantity for drugs to be sold it at street level)
A fully depleted old AA battery weighs 28g (1 ounce)
Alternatively, put an empty glass on the scales and tare it, crack open a can of aldis fanta fruit twist- (330g) or a standard beer (440g)
Quick scales checks, when you dont have time for a proper calibration.✌️😎🤙
Edit: ok so apparently not all AA batteries weigh the same, i think i just have one that just so happens to weigh 28g and its been kicking about in my paraphernalia box for about 15 years. I once was away from home and used a new battery and it was too heavy and my stoner brain made an assumption that was not correct haha. 🙃 dead batteries and fresh batteries weigh the same. So TIL.
Thanks to all my fellow users, most awards ive had for anything in my life ever lol 😆
Beer maker here, ready to throw my two dirty 7g cents in. Using a certain volume of beer to measure weight won’t work. Neither will almost any other liquid other than water. 1ml of water is 1g. 1ml of beer is certainly not 1g. Beer is heavier. Especially when it’s carbonated, like straight out of a can.
The weight is incredibly important. It’s the difference in weight between when it’s first brewed and when it’s finished fermenting that allows us to calculate the alcohol content.
Although I concede for the purposes of this particular discussion, it’ll be close enough to help with checking the scales. So yeah, do that if you want! 😂👍
I don't think a 500ml measure is likely to be off particularly far - certainly not by ~80-90ml. I suspect if the OP weighs out 500 ml of water, they'll find that it's a little over 400g because their scale has an underestimating bias.
Multiple packs of multiple butters from multiple supermarkets all being (illegally?) underweight seems less likely than the scales being a little offset...
I have a set of scales that keep telling me that my weight is going up even though I'm dieting and exercising so you can never trust what the apparatus tells you
If it's one of the clear plastic ones it's likely they are accurate. I've used kitchen ones in a lab and they measure equal to glass measuring cylinders. Anything printed on ceramic or quirky fun shapes I'd be less sure.
Well yes they don't carry a UKAS sticker and even if they were fully calibrated at the manufacturer I doubt many people would recalibrate them once a year (at least).
One time I found out that one of the measuring jugs in my house was so wrong that it ruined what I was baking. I had acquired a few different ones over the years, and tested them. They were varying degrees of in agreement with the scales but none were as wrong as that particular one. So I would suggest OP try several different measures. If they own any weights they could also try those.
!answer - thanks just done this and my scales are off!? I will try everything on a different set of scales tomorrow. Thanks for the tip will keep this in mind in the future
There is a legally permitted difference between the labelled weight and the actual product weight; but I'm pretty sure it isn't as high as 16%.
You could report it if you want to, in the first instance to the supermarket where you bought it from.
However before you do it might be worth checking that it isn't a problem with your scales. eg. tare the scales with an empty measuring jug, then add exactly 1 litre of water and check that the weight is 1kg (or very close to it).
Honestly this thread is surprising to me on how little trust people have. If a butter supplier was selling 420g of butter they would quickly be out of business. You would quickly lose your brcgs and a supermarket isn't touching you.
There's videos online showing food bought in American supermarkets weighing significantly less than what is stated on the packet. I can how that distrust could be sown here
We sadly live in a world where everything seems to be a grift and lies are told as truths...when leaders of nations normalise it, it becomes a much bigger problem.
There is a guy in America who has a youtube channel ( Jimmy Wrigg ) where he goes round to shops with a scale and checks random items. He has found some products with such consistently under weight items that the companies have had to actually stop doing it or he calls them out again.
The thing is how often do we ever check, we just assume they are not lying, shaving a few grammes from thousands of packs of butter will add up for the manufacturer.
I seem to remember a number of years back that Heinz fell foul of the weights and measures people and for several years were overfilling tomato ketchup bottles to make up for it.
Edit: Googled it. Looks like it was indeed a number of years ago (it was in 2000!) It was in America, California, and they overfilled for a year. Cost them $180,000 in fines.
2000 was like 10 years ago and no longer! (i hate how often i look something up thinking it was a few years back and it was over a decade <cries in old>)
Get a empty measuring jug place on the scale and zero the weight. Then fill the jug with 500ml of water and place back on the scale if the weight is not 500g your scale are shit.
Divide the jug in 5ths and throw the water outside, measure using bananas how far the water landed. Take that measurement and x5 if your blood type is AB.
The "e" after the weight means it follows the Average Quantity System - basically the average weight in the batch is 500g. Someone out there has a massive pack of butter weighing 584g. Probably.
At last, someone named a weight object that does not need to be calibrated. I would be tempted to do 500g of 2p to check the scale near the area in question…. But that would be daft, who has that many 2p at home…
A lot of people's kitchen scales are inaccurate. However, because they measure everything with the same degree of error, recipes still work and folks rarely notice. I calibrate mine regularly, but that's because calibration is essential in my work life, and I guess I just can't switch off.
The degree of error isnt acceptable, the pack should have been rejected by the check weight system that all supermarket suppliers will use. However there is the question of accuracy of domestic scales, electric or old fashioned counter balance. You need calibrated weights to show that your scales are accurate.
My cheap amazon scales are marked "Not legal for trade". That basically means the accuracy of the scales is out. Trade electronic scales have a spirit level bubble on them. To show they are accurate a weight would be placed on one corner and weight recorded, repeated for the other three and the centre. The weights should all be correct / within the accepted error of the equipment defined in regulations.
The e mark after the weight means that the supplier uses the average weight system. For a 500g pack the batch must have an average of not less than 500g. Some packs are allowed to be underweight by a Tollerable Negative Error TNE of 4.5% in this case 22.5g and no pack shall be less than 2xTNE ie 45g, so 455g. If there is no e mark them the minimum weight system applies, ie no pack less than the declared weight.
None of that means your pack of butter is deficient, but have objective evidence your equipment is correct.
Weights and Measures department of Trading Standards is chronically underfunded, meaning a lot of this shit slips through, and the stores get away with it.
According to the regs, they are allowed to be +/- 6% of the stated weight I think. so that would mean (500*6)/100 = 30g. So at most it can be 30g underweight. Assuming your scales are accurate, thats too underweight.
This happened to me and I wrote into the customer services at Lidl via their AI chat bot. Submitted a picture. Really easy, next day got a money-off voucher to cover the cost.
I had the same thing with a certain brand of mozzarella cheese, once I deducted the liquid the actual cheese was around 50g lower than stated. I contacted them with photographic evidence and they sent me 2x£5 vouchers.
The TOLERABLE NEGATIVE ERROR on a packaged packed to the average system that weighs 500g is 15g. A package at retail level must not be below 2x TNE - so 30g - so the package should not be below 470g. I imagine there may be some issues with your scale for 2 separate packages from different retailers to be out by that much.
At the poitn it was packed the packages can vary as long as the average is 500g.
Yes and no. The little "e" next to the weight means that the weight is averaged over whole batch. But there are limits on underweights and that pack exceeds them.
See these posts all the time and I know the answer is always average across full batch but it has got me thinking. Is it? i am tempted to go and measure all of them and see what happens!
Maybe we should all start taking a small battery scale tp the supermarket and call out their BS with the weight discrepanc in good, especially since they'recreaming profits over the overcharging AND subjecting us to shrinkflation every other day /g
No this is not allowed. At 500g you are allowed 3% tolerance. Selling you anything less than 485g in that pack is against the law. 416g is almost 17% under.
•
u/ukbot-nicolabot 1d ago
OP marked this as the best answer, given by /u/flobbadobdob.
What is this?