Broccoli should weigh 400 grams, but the scale only shows 368 grams
Label fraud at Migros?
A Blick reader reporter can’t believe it. He buys a packaged broccoli from Migros. Instead of 400 grams, there are only about 360 grams in it, as he finds out when weighing. Migros finds it difficult to answer, as a request shows.
1/5
400 grams – that’s what it says in large letters on the label of this packaged organic broccoli from Migros.
Blick reader David S.* is amazed when he weighs a packaged organic broccoli in Migros at the beginning of last week. The label says 400 grams, the vegetables are packaged. However, there are only a good 360 grams inside, as the display of the scale shows.
Is there something wrong with the scales or is the broccoli suffering from weight loss? Customer S. is taken aback and confronts Migros via Twitter. The retailer promises to check the said products in the branch in Pfäffikon ZH and the scales.
Meanwhile, Blick is talking to Migros. The retailer plays down the case. Such discrepancies in natural products are normal and customers always have the right to a replacement product with the correct quantity in such a case. Everything seems to be fine with the scales. However, some questions remain unanswered.
Just because of water loss?
Migros says that fresh products such as fruit and vegetables constantly lose water during storage and transport. Hence the weight loss. But why not just add the expected water loss on top of that?
Migros says that there are clear laws. In other words: there are regulations as to how large the discrepancy in weight between the label and the true weight of the fresh product can be. “In the case of imported products, the package must show the printed weight when crossing the border, for domestic products at the time of packaging,” says the spokesman for Migros. But can a broccoli be 40 grams lighter in the store?
Migros does not answer how large this deviation can legally be, even when asked several times. However, since the broccoli in question is an Italian product, the weight should have been 400 grams when it was packed in Switzerland. A weight loss of ten percent within a few hours seems unlikely. Especially since fruit and vegetables are delivered fresh to the branches every day.
Different explanations
Migros then also mentions possible packaging errors to David S. via Twitter. “We checked the stocks in the store and removed the faulty items from the shelves. We will pass the issue on to the fruit and vegetable department for clarification,” Migros wrote on Twitter.
This leads to the question: are such deviations standard or not? If they were standard, then Migros would probably not have to forward this to a specialist body for verification. The Migros Twitter message also implies that it is more than just a single product.
It is therefore worth taking a closer look at packaged fruit and vegetables. Or to put the products on the scales again before buying them.
*Name known to editors