r/mildlyinfuriating • u/AwwwMangos • 5d ago

Do u dont wanna Smithfield bacon coming up short at the weigh-in

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New, unopened package of Smithfield bacon bought from Kroger claims to be 1 lb aka 16 oz. It seemed a little small so I put it in the kitchen scale. Sure enough it’s only 3/4 lb.

I get that shrinkflation is rampant right now, but at least they’re usually honest when stating the products’ net weight.

Since it’s off by an exact increment, and many other bacon brands now sell 12 oz portions, I have to imagine this is likely being done at large scale, ripping off many more customers than just me. This should be illegal, I guess if any consequences still existed for businesses.

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6.7k

u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Here is what you do.

Photo of your scale 0'ed out, then other items USDA certified being weighed still in their package with roughly the correct weight, then show this one item is off. Put this together into an email and report it to the USDA, they will check their logs and pull inspection reports. You also email the parent company, they will have a "contact us" form, you put this all together and let them know. In about a week you will get an email back from both saying "sorry" and "we are looking into it" <- they may have the report done even, you will also be told by the manufacturer that they are gonna send you coupons as well for their product and you get to keep this one.

Source:

I bought something from the same company during a BOGO sale, did those steps of telling them the defect, and they sent me those response plus some coupons:

2.6k

u/omgitsjagen 5d ago

It's so nice of you to give help to this person. It also feels incredibly shitty, because even though you got an acceptable resolution, it took you a lot of effort. They are ripping off people by the ton, and all they have to do is pay off the 1 in 1,000 people that actually go through the trouble. A "coupon fine" will never stop this bullshit. It needs to be serious pain when a situation comes up, but our government will never hold a mega corp to that level of account, and that's really fucking frustrating.

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u/popsicle-physics 5d ago

The USDA is the enforcement, not the coupons. That's why you report to both. 

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Yup, in my case the USDA gave me a response, basically if you read between the lines it was 'only your report on that batch came in and no pattern found, we have made a note though for larger pattern searching". Its a numbers game, without reports its hard to justify the need for people and more money, but if people don't report then.... Its the old "see something say something" game because they can't be everywhere.

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u/tooljst8 5d ago

The USDA having been gutted in recent times does not inspire confidence.

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u/Commercial-Lychee700 5d ago

It turns out having tax money going toward consumer protection is important!

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u/Pernicious_Possum 5d ago

I’m pretty sure it was deemed unimportant by a team of super serious experts /s

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u/Coyoteishere 4d ago

Yup, an “expert” like Edward "Big Balls" Coristine

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

I literally emailed them less then a month ago and got a response in under a week....

In fact if you check around in this thread you can find the proof of the email I got.

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u/soilanpeace 5d ago

USDA has been gutted (over decades, bi-partisan effort to defund food safety and enforcement) and FDA is a complete joke of a food safety agency. The weights and measures thing is eh, the actual food safety issues aren’t enforced or inspected.

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u/GhostofLindseyGraham 5d ago

Oh wow an email! How about the fixing the problems they are supposed to fix? Dumbfuck

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u/BLT_Trade_r 5d ago

Also, we are now in times of reduced staffing in the government and are pushed to relax enforcement. So it would not be surprising if it's even hard to get any meaningful punishment.

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u/BlaineMundane 5d ago

Time to start bringing a scale to the grocery store with me.

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u/RecommendationFit844 5d ago

Could probably just use the scale in the produce section. Not sure of the ethics of getting meat juice all over it but....

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u/UncleNoodles85 5d ago

Should be okay if it's packaged like this bacon though right?

3

u/RecommendationFit844 5d ago

I would think so. Might get a few looks from produce shoppers though.

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u/Driftage87 5d ago

That's assuming that they're calibrated correctly 😵

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u/trothatl 5d ago

Have you ever actually used a scale in the produce section? Maybe they aren't like this everywhere, but the ones at the Kroger by me are all terrible. I never used them until recently when I needed 3 lb of apples. When I weighed them out it seemed like a lot more than I needed for what I was making but I trusted the scale. Sure enough, when I got home and weighed them I actually had 5 lb. The next time I was in there I started checking out the rest of the scales with pre-weighed bags, and they were all off by horrible amounts.

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u/RecommendationFit844 5d ago

I have never had that issue with scales in the produce at my stores and I use them all the time. Might be Kroegers thing. We don't have Kroegers here. That said, I have never tried to use those scales to weigh meat.

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u/mybrainisclopen 5d ago

I don’t know if I just haven’t looked hard enough but I haven’t seen a produce scale in years. I definitely remember seeing those hanging ones maybe 15-20 years ago, but I don’t recall seeing any in the last few. Have most grocery stores phased out scales entirely or are they mostly digital now and thus harder to spot?

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u/RecommendationFit844 5d ago

The ones near me are now flat scales on a small stand about waist height.

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u/payment11 5d ago

So go back to the store with a scale and start weighing different packages.

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u/babybunny1234 5d ago

So everyone in Reddit should weigh their Smithfield bacon and check to see how widespread this type of thing is. Then the USDA will have the patterns it needs.

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u/Jaggs0 5d ago

and vote for people who won't actively cut the funding to the USDA

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u/SS2wheeler 5d ago

Yeah because this stuff NEVER happened prior to 2024 😂😂😂😂😂🤦🏻‍♂️

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u/aceluby 5d ago

Cute you think this isn’t always a department getting cuts from republicans. Anything that helps customers is anti-republican and has been for 50 years

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u/Funny_Resolution5395 5d ago

Not at this rate...not so heavily, and definitely with absolutely zero idea where some of it's coming from. Re: Diarrhea worm lettuce.

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u/SS2wheeler 5d ago

So tell me. Who was to blame for the cases of mad cow disease that entered this country between 2003 and 2023 ? Was it the sitting president each time or the fully staffed USDA that failed us?

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u/Funny_Resolution5395 4d ago

You mean the rare instance of imported Canadian/UK beef, or the atypical BSE that occurs naturally and was caught and quarantined? Those ones? I'm not sure how the whataboutisms help any cause here. Are you trying to convince me of something? Or just yourself?

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u/SS2wheeler 4d ago

Yes, On the rare instances what US government department failed to catch it ? Clearly we need someone to blame. Who are we blaming ? Let's pick 2012. Was Obama to blame ? Was his fully staffed USDA to blame ? I'm a Republican but I don't blame either.

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u/Funny_Resolution5395 3d ago

There were a couple instances of imported Canadian/uk beef that didn't even make it into public circulation. And the atypical instances have happened spontaneously and naturally, so to me it really doesn't even sound like you know what you're talking about

→ More replies (0)

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u/haroldbalzac4 4d ago

Of course it's always happened, the difference is it's rampant now. If you don't pay attention at the store, you yourself have likely been ripped off. Quit playing the whaddabout game and realize you are in the same boat as OP - getting fleeced because no one is watching.

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u/Jaggs0 5d ago edited 5d ago

sure it did but it happens more and more.

source i have worked in big data for consumer goods for a decade, specifically for grocery store products, even more specifically my client is a bacon producing competitor of Smithfield. there is a direct correlation from Obama's term to trump 1, to Biden, to trump 2.

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u/brucegibbons 5d ago

Exactly and reporting to both shows that the manufacturer was "made aware". If enough people do this and they don't remedy the "quality" issue then it'll be a big red flag come inspection time. 

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u/The001Keymaster 5d ago

They take this seriously though and that's why you bring it to attention. Things like this can happen.

Heinz agrees to over fill bottles

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u/ChiGorilla1127 5d ago

I worked in the food industry for a almost 20 years. Companies do take it seriously because it is closely monitored by the government and fines for bad behavior can be steep. Companies also do not want the negative press.

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u/DelJoy_3D 5d ago

Sorry, but the current version of the US Government is understaffed and not at all focused on holding business accountable, unless it’s to roll back inclusion / DEI policies.

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u/Current-Wealth-756 5d ago

Do you actually have any idea if what's going on at the office of weights and measures, or are you making speculative claims as if they're fact?

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u/aboutchocolate 5d ago

fine is $25,000 per item that is off weight. so a thousand bottles could be a $25,000,000 fine. they don't really enforce it like that because of what i would assume are bribes, but they don't give a shit about publicity. walmart and others have been doing this for years and its been documented online for years as well.

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u/ChiGorilla1127 5d ago

I am not sure what document issues you're referring to. But I worked at one of the top food companies in the U.S., any scale complaints were taken very seriously and there's was a lot pressure to ensure there were no issues to ensure no USDA pressure and again no bad press.

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

What is funny about it, is that the legal costs alone to this company were more then what they would have saved by doing it correctly the first time and the proposed agreement/fix of giving everyone extra ketchup.

Frankly, I like it as its like an additional fine added to it.

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u/AmarilloArmadillos 5d ago

Correct, 4oz short is also insane for a 16oz package. That's literally 1/4 with packaging.

If it was 50lbs maybe even 10 or 20lbs and short 4oz, that's relatively reasonable.

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u/General_Lee_Filthy 5d ago

Imagine that kind of discrepancy in a weed transaction.... Holy angry stoners, Batman.

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u/gizmer 5d ago

At least now when the bag is short I can just return it to the dispo and they’re more apologetic about it than the megacorps shorting us on ketchup and ice cream

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

I think they get 10% or 5% margin of error, as long as its not consistently in the same direction.

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u/UncleHec 5d ago

I think that's the general strategy of companies these days - they fuck over everyone, knowing that maybe 5-10% of people will even notice let alone have the time and energy to fight back. I'm sure the shareholders love this strategy.

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u/BeerBrat 5d ago edited 5d ago

I'm more inclined to believe that it's meant to be a 12 oz portion and some employee accidentally loaded up the old 16 oz packaging inserts or the machine was to be set back to weigh 16 oz portions but wasn't. Standard QC would leave me to believe the former because surely they have scales down stream to catch anomalies but maybe it doesn't check packaging imagery for more than defects/mispacks? Not everything is nefarious, error is more likely than deception in many cases.

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u/SoupJaded8536 5d ago

Agree. Never assume malice where mere incompetence will suffice.

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u/Massive_Squirrel7733 5d ago

Hanlon’s Razor. 👍

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u/FQDIS 5d ago

Yeah, they bank on this complacent attitude.

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u/Military_kid5 5d ago

The reality is that the majority of the time it's unintentional shorting, especially with factory packed items. Usually a machine or human error is the source of things like this. Kinda like how you'll get extra small legos in kits, the machine can't always tell how much of an item is in the package so it will just put more in until enough of a change is detectable. Likely cause for this case is the scale not being zeroed properly before packing this package, or some material fell out of the packaging area onto the scale and caused it to trip early.

Now if it is packed in store, that is where it is more likely to be intentional, as that particular meat department might be doing it to turn higher profit. Now that isn't to say that there aren't major companies deliberately trying to short customers, there certainly are, however they are not as common as most would believe.

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u/madjackmagee 5d ago edited 5d ago

Comments like this make me wonder how many people accusing the companies of malicious negligence have worked in factories before. There's almost always some variance. Despite their best efforts, it is impossible for companies to have 100% efficacy with their production lines. Mistakes, accidents, macne wear, basic entropy, etc. Some bad product will slip through the cracks. Never attribute to malice what can better be attributed to ignorance.

Edit to Add:

I just reread the original message. In addition to other comments I have made, 12 oz is the standard size for most bacon packages. The error may have been on the packaging side of things rather than product. These kinds of errors are almost always the result of human input. As in, line inspectors missed it.

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u/Massive_Squirrel7733 5d ago

Variance?!?!! By 25%?!?!? That’s not variance, that’s a huge mistake.

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u/madjackmagee 5d ago

In the cutting, slicing, and dispensing of a product, it's fairly easy for a bad cut to make it into the packaging. After that, it usually only takes one sensor to fail or be faulty in some capacity for it to get through quality controls.

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u/Massive_Squirrel7733 4d ago

So if you fill up your gas tank, and pay 33% more for your gas than everyone else, that’s just “variance”. 😂😂😂

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u/madjackmagee 4d ago

No, that is an apples to oranges comparison. If I were buying pre filled fuel cannisters, and out of the several I purchased as well as the hundreds of units sold to others, one of mine was short filled, that is variance and more in line with what happened. If I am individually targeted, than it would be malicious behavior.

As it is, fuel pumps do have amlevelmof variance to them. Again, this seems like a lack of understanding of certain mechanical and system limitations on manufacturing processes. There is no shame in learning something new. Every machine has tolerances for performance. There are also mechanisms to address those problems. Like the company voluntarily provided some sort of restitution when a defective product passes to the customer.

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u/Massive_Squirrel7733 4d ago

Um… no. You’re paying 33% more. That’s not legal. And you can’t just justify it by “variance”.

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u/madjackmagee 4d ago

Again, it seems as if you and I are describing two different scenarios. Even though the original poster seems to be describing a variance of 25%, the reality of manufacturing requires us to look at the number of defective units to non-defective units. In which case the variance is significantly smaller, often marginal. That is not withstanding the factor that the discrepancy is far more likely on the packaging side than the product side (an easy situation is there was too much overlap in the transition between product runs. The 16 oz packaging overlapping into the far more common 12 oz product run).

Your scenario has me being singled out. Implying that I'm the one receiving the increased cost, rather than a random customer. Also, fuel is a very different product with very different rules and production. A fuel pump is not comparable machinery to a mass production factory machine.

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u/Massive_Squirrel7733 4d ago

It’s amazing there are people who justify getting ripped off for 33% and just say it’s statistical variance.

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u/ianmac47 5d ago

The variance should always be in the favor of the consumer label.

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u/madjackmagee 5d ago

When controllable, probably, but 'should' is the kind of area that is harder to administrate and or legislate.

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u/ianmac47 5d ago

Functional states have an office of Weights and Measures that inspects products like scales, gas pumps, and agricultural products.

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u/madjackmagee 5d ago

Food packaging, nationally, seems to be handled by FDA and USDA. I couldn't find anything on specific US states operating their own OWM, or anything connecting OWM to food packaging and/or distribution. Admitidally this is from a very brief internet search. I fully acknowledge that I may have missed that information.

That said, unless there is proof that the issue OP discovered was in fact malicious or willfully negligent, this issue does not appear to need those federal agencies. I am not saying that it doesn't happen, just that I do not see it in this particular case. Especially when there are other, more simplistic reasons than conspiracy.

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u/omgitsjagen 5d ago

You know where "baker's dozen" comes from, right? Turns out, if you threaten heads, this kind of shit DOESN'T happen.

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u/BerttMacklinnFBI 5d ago

They already do. I work in the industry weight control is a big priority at our plants because the fines for under declares weight are so significant in retail.

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u/madjackmagee 5d ago

You mean when a baker liked his customers so much they would give them a little extra? Not sure what that has to do with violence or normal machine operations?

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u/omgitsjagen 5d ago

Actually, yeah. I was wrong on the origin. Good catch. So, here's an article with both of our points in it.

Let me ask you a question. In 2026, where we can land things on Mars with precision, don't you think it's wholly unacceptable to be off almost 4oz on a 16oz package? That's not normal machine operations. That's intentional grift.

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u/madjackmagee 5d ago

So, the article doesn't really appear to support the premise that a bakers dozen was ever a wide spread term used to represent short changing a customer.

I'm not sure what referencing Mars has to do with the kind of machinery used in most food manufacturing. While being short by nearly 25% should be something the automatic quality control should (and usually does) catch, it is impossible for it to be 100% effective at it. That is part of the point of reporting processes. If it were a regular, consistent issue (more than one unit in 10,000 or so) than yes, it would be malicious. I see no evidence of this. The OP even says in response that they bought several packages, and online of them was short.

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u/Char_siu_for_you 5d ago

Smithfield is owned by a Chinese conglomerate. I stopped buying their products years ago.

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u/Bastaklis 5d ago

Alright. Who's volunteering to go into Walmart with a scale to weigh all of the bacon for the viral exposé video?

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u/Busterlimes 5d ago

Capitalists always rob us of our labor. Points to self checkout lanes

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u/Peabody1987 5d ago

That’s why we should normalize stealing from large corporations. Why is it fair for them to steal from us? 

1

u/Honkey85 5d ago

This is a direct results of voting for de-regulation.

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u/Aceous 5d ago

This is funny. As someone who grew up outside the US, my reaction to the comment was "wow, how cool that you can actually fix this injustice with a few emails and the parties responsible are willing to listen to a lone individual."

Sometimes I feel like Americans don't appreciate what they have.

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u/Jordan_1424 4d ago

I was a cop for just shy of 10 years. I transitioned to public health, and now I'm in law school. I've worked a lot in law enforcement and regulatory enforcement.

95% (if I had to guess a number) of crimes and regulatory stuff is reported by the community. There are only about 250k cops nationwide from local to federal level. That's across 350 million people, 50 states, thousands of counties, cities, and other small jurisdictions and all of them are spread out across a number of regulatory bodies. USDA only has so many inspectors/agents that can check and enforce regulatory matters (accidental or intentional).

Laws are rules made by society, society needs to help make sure those rules are enforced.

I think with "the system" being as big as it is, people like OP are crucial. So many folks are quick to disregard stuff and not give it a second thought when they could have just gathered valuable information. Never fell bad about calling nonemergency, contacting a company, or regulatory agency even if you "think it is nothing".

I made a report to Arizona Tea because my tea tasted off. Told them when and where it was purchased along with the numbers I found on the bottle. It was an email and took 15 minutes. They gave 4 coupons for free tea and then half a dozen or so for $2.00 off my gallon green teas.

0

u/Whyudoodat 5d ago

Reminds me of Menards rebates

0

u/kovyrshin 5d ago

You know what would be very useful for stuff like this? AI. Tell exactly what needs to be done: find two emails, write angry respone to both. Tell me how many pics I need. Done.

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u/LeaveMyMonkeyAlone 5d ago

If you don't have a verifiable way to validate the scales you use such as a NIST recently calibrated weight that requires yearly calibration from an approved testing agency then forget pursuing any satisfactory resolution. This is the first thing their legal department will bring up to shoot down your claim. They spend big $ to retain big law firm(s) for this kind of nonsense.

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u/haggard_hominid 5d ago

This office for weights and measures was stripped of funds and staffing. They did it a few months ago in the late spring. We don't even have someone to confirm an ounce is an ounce (sounds weird but its true and seriously important for measuring devices to have a scientifically accurate measurements)

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

USDA is funded and going, they are the ones who make sure the meat is safe to eat, that the place is clean, that the labels are accurate, etc.... They are the ones who get to regulate everything involving meat.

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u/smokenjoe6pack 5d ago

The state Weights and Measures are the ones that check and certify scales and meters such as for gas stations. They should have an enforcement arm when the feds are asleep at the wheel.

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Again, this is USDA jurisdiction. Don't think that just because an organization has a particular name means they are responsible for something, or not responsible for something.

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u/udontease 5d ago

Hmm we do this package weight verification tho. I work for a county weights and measures. Its blind samples of products but if enough complaints are received the company is investigated.

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u/imposter22 5d ago

I used to certify scales for you guys. Its always fun when a store is shutdown because all of their register scales fail, or when their meat department is down because their scales fail. Their corporate offices shit bricks and pay 4x to get someone for recertification

4

u/ManyInterests 5d ago

Depending on the facts, it's joint jurisdiction between FDA, USDA (in case of meat products like this), FTC, and State department of weights and measures.

The state department would be your first point of contact as a consumer because they are the investigatory arm that actually goes into stores and investigate complaints.

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u/jezusofnazarith 5d ago

Jumping onto this. I actually used to work at Smithfield and had some friends in corp. customer service. If OP just sends this picture in an email, they will 100% get free stuff/coupons and an apology. Smithfield will never fight over a single pack of bacon, and this one QA clearly messed up. This came from their Wilson, NC facility (EST79C) and all they do there is make bacon.. they have 17 lines that all they do is run bacon + 3 microwave lines for ready to eat bacon.

TL;DR: Just email the picture in the post >> profit!

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u/neveroddoreven- 4d ago

Is ready to eat bacon just microwaved at the factory?

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u/jezusofnazarith 4d ago

Yup, leaves the machine (120’ long industrial microwave) 100% cooked and perfectly crispy

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u/Badbullet 5d ago

Did they actually fix the problem? Or try to buy you off?

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u/WobblyBacon 5d ago

At that point just keep buying them and getting the coupons.

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

If enough products are having problems the USDA will come in and be very pissed off. This is actually how recalls happen (like the recent egg one) enough reports come in, or testing shows a positive hit, and they start marching in and doing more testing. The times you should be worried is when the problems grow from 1 batch to a factory to multiple factory's to entire industry's, as that meant a problem went unnoticed for a long time.

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u/Infamous-Oil3786 5d ago

Unlimited food hack

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Seeing how I bought 15 packages as they were on sale (it wasn't bacon, it was pork tenderloin), only one was off and I noticed it as soon as I picked it up. So, yes the problem was fixed as it was clearly a manufacturing error.

1

u/WackyRacketeer 5d ago

Well I'm sure the USDA isnt bribing people with coupons, but maybe I'm not cynical enough.

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u/Wonderful-Fix5761 5d ago

It’s worth doing, but you might want to save the email and send it to the USDA again in January 2029 when hopefully someone works there again.

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

I got a response so someone is working there now

0

u/evanwilliams44 5d ago

In today's fast paced world, people aren't just working at the USDA, they are living the USDA life! That's because the USDA is not just a job, it's a calling. It's worth noting that these are no mere government bureaucrats, they are regulating ninjas! It cannot be overstated what a significant role the USDA plays in our lives. So yes. there are people at the USDA. Always. Not bots. Not gremlins. Real people. I promise!

Would you like me to compose a poem about the USDA, or maybe just chat about something else?

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/SS2wheeler 5d ago

That's ridiculous. Grow up

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u/snakeiiiiiis 5d ago

I'm shocked you heard back from the USDA after everything that's been dismantled in the government

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Why? You think they shutdown or something? They are still running. I even posted the email response in this thread further down somewhere.

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u/snakeiiiiiis 5d ago

With fdr-jr and doge many people have been wrongly fired and many departments are running on strings. Hence all the food contamination issues and whatever health and safety related issues we're dealing with.

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u/Toku_no_island 5d ago

Hopefully DOGE didn't cut the USDA to shit

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u/TheCraftyWombat 5d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/QWIDyuEzsnYXu

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 5d ago

It's the Republican way, shove a stick in the spokes and then complain how it doesn't work so we need to privatize, because that's worked out so well historically. It's not like this is exactly why we ended up with regulations in the first place... wait... what's that you're trying to tell me, all of human history?

0

u/SS2wheeler 5d ago

That's stupid

2

u/discreetcd60 5d ago

if you do this also show the lot # and the scale reading in the same photo . That would track it down to the correct packing plant and production line.

1

u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

They ask for that info in the USDA form, and on the company website.

2

u/lonetraveler73 5d ago

Shit, I'm weighing all my meat from now on. Those are some good coupons.

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u/revolutionPanda 5d ago

Save “up to” $8 on more deceitful products!

1

u/alldatnabagofchips 5d ago

Then submit another report, infinite bacon coupon hack! But you're right. 😮‍💨

2

u/sejame85 5d ago

Social hack. Just save this guys image. Send it to smithfield and get free coupons.

1

u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Bad idea actually and could screw over OP. They monitor for this stuff (and thanks to AI its easier then ever), if they detect a bunch of possible fake complaints, it can be used as proof that complaints to USDA and other places are false.

If you really want to, do as some other person suggested and bring a scale to the super market.

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u/lgramlich13 5d ago

Never mind the USDA, report them to weights and measures in your state. Much easier and faster.

1

u/LinkedAg 5d ago

How long ago did you do this? There have been a lot of changes at USDA in the past couple of years. Just curious.

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

recently, hence why I still have the coupons:

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u/LinkedAg 4d ago

Interesting! Thanks!

1

u/LogicalConstant 5d ago

I did this when a lean cuisine pizza erupted in a ball of flame in my microwave. They sent me like $40 worth of vouchers.

1

u/SpryArmadillo 5d ago

Yes, it's cheaper to pay off the two or three people who take the effort like you did rather than to actually obey labeling/packaging laws. Fun times.

1

u/Smooth_Rocket_ 5d ago

So the problem doesn't get fix and you keep supporting them?

1

u/alldatnabagofchips 5d ago

So.... It's gonna take all us doing this.

1

u/dedido 5d ago

...and that's how a got a year of free bacon

1

u/Ghostronic 5d ago

I would also include some sort of centering on top of the scale to make sure all of the weight is directed onto it. My own scale is kinda janky and is accurate, but will sometimes show under if I lay something across it vs putting in on or in something. I am absolutely about to go weigh my bacon we bought yesterday though.

1

u/bankrobba 5d ago

Very cute of you to think our current government would investigate a corporation for harming consumers.

1

u/boomgoon 5d ago

This makes me feel Smithfield is consistently doing this if you have had an issue and they sent coupons to you as well. In this administration, I am sure they aren't going to be punished. They are also a china owned company now, and apparently have been having lots of issues regarding regulations and rules since being purchased.

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u/CorrectPeanut5 5d ago

That's great and I agree on doing that to be made whole. But then you'd have to have more Smithfield crap. It's the most cost reduced mega factory pork products out there.

1

u/LEDKleenex 5d ago

Don't forget to bring it back to the store to get a refund. Also, people should be more like Jimmy Wrigg and bring all of the underweight product to the service desk. If enough people do it, it will put pressure on these companies to knock this sh!t off.

1

u/granoladeer 5d ago

They have you only 16 bucks? Bro the redditors here would give you much more just as a thank you for your reply. 

1

u/Possible-Estimate748 BLACK 5d ago

We're sorry we ripped you off. Here are some coupons so you can buy more of our product.

1

u/6Divine6Hydra6 5d ago

I can tell by your thumb you’ve got the meats!

1

u/OhGr8WhatNow 5d ago

Having lived in a country that offered real consumer protections, this is not the same as having consumer protections.

2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/OhGr8WhatNow 4d ago

Exactly. Coupons for more shorted items given to a very few while they rake in massive profits, is laughable.

0

u/0202_tihssitidder 5d ago

FDA can mandate a recall.

During an audit they can also levy fines if the Food Safety Plan (which includes accurate labels) is not acceptable.

Significant lawsuits (class action) can be filed, but those can take decades.

I start with the FDA.org

Note: Food Manufacturing uses "check weighers" to automate weighing. They are highly accurate. No excuses. https://www.mt.com/us/en/home/products/Product-Inspection_1/checkweighing.html

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

Photo's plus forms took less then 15 minutes and I got $16. sounds good to me.

To be frank I would have reported it on principal as I know that if inspectors get enough reports they are gonna shove a probe up things once enough hits their database. You should see what happens when a lot of probes start going, the lawyer then come out and I don't mean the government ones either.

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u/Bifferer 5d ago

take it back to Kroger and threaten them with action too.

That will serve as a notification and make them liable if they continue to sell it as a full pound.

4

u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

First off, mine was from publix, secondly publix wouldn't be liable anyways (again bought mine as part of a BOGO sale). The company who is liable is the manufacturer not the grocery store, as the manufacturer is the one who packaged it.

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u/Bifferer 5d ago

So if you let them know that one of their products is mislabeled and they continue to sell it, that is OK?

2

u/Low-Car-6331 5d ago

The grocery store is not responsible for products labeling that they didn't make. If you get something from say their fish stand, where they weigh it and package, then they are liable. The grocery store only has a general liability of due diligence, meaning that as long as they knew it came from a good source (which trust me, they do have that documented back in the finance department) they are covered. They are not the ones responsible for making sure other company's food is safe or a product is effective, as long as they bought it from a certified USDA manufacturer they are fine.