Woolworths investigating after shopper notices issue with popular product
Queensland man Ben was checking the weights of the 180g containers of roasted and salted cashews, and took three packets over to the scales in the produce section to see how closely they matched the labelled weight.
'You want to make sure you get what you pay for,' he said.
Despite being identical, he found that each of the three packs had a different weight, with one weighing almost 20 per cent less than the heaviest. The discrepancy has caught the attention of Woolworths, who told Yahoo News they are now investigating the issue.
While his TikTok video claims that the weights ranged from 145g to 180g, many viewers were quick to point out an issue with the scale.
A message on the screen says that it needs to be zeroed, with a measurement under the plate reading negative 35g. This would make the weights of the products between 180g - 215g, which would more accurately count for both the nuts and the packaging.
A Yahoo experiment compared the weights of six packets of the same cashews on a correctly working scale inside Woolworths on Monday, and found all six to weigh between 200g and 210g.
But did Ben's results still highlight a problem with the products?
Woolworths investigating varying weights
It can be easy to discredit the video because of the inaccurate weights, but the 35g discrepancy between the products is actually not acceptable in Australian packaging standards.
A close look at the container could explain minor fluctuations, with the letter 'e' written beside the 180g weight.
The 'e' is a commonly used symbol also known as the estimated sign or the quantité estimée. It can be found on a range of other prepackaged goods, including fruit and vegetables, cereals, snack foods, cheese and meat.
In Australia, the 'e' indicates goods have been packed in accordance with the Average Quantity System (AQS), but there are limits to how much the weight can vary.
For items between 100g and 200g — like the cashews — an acceptable tolerance is 4.5 per cent of its weight, meaning they can only fluctuate by 8.1g.
The heavier the product is, the smaller the margin for error is.
'AQS is based on recommendations developed by the International Organisation of Legal Metrology, and is intended for use in large-scale packaging plants where goods are packed in the same quantity in batches of at least 100 packages,' a spokesman for the National Measurement Institute previously told Yahoo News Australia.
He added the AQS helps manufacturers and packers with export, as other countries also use the 'e-mark', and gives international buyers confidence in the quantity presented on the product.
Woolworths told Yahoo News that based on the varying weights in Ben's video, they have launched an investigation with their suppliers.
"All of our products are expected to meet their weight standard, and we and our suppliers have relevant checks in place on this front," the spokesperson said.
"Given what we've seen in this case, we're already working with our supply partner to investigate.
"If a customer is ever concerned about the weight of a product, we'd encourage them to take the item to the Service Desk in store. We then have the product details and batch numbers we need to investigate further."
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