I bought 175 g pack of salami which had 162 g of salami as well.

  • SexyTimeSasquatch@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yes, it seems that way because your kitchen scale is faulty and measuring everything a bit on the light side.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Or it was measured differently. They could have stacked ten of them on a scale at once while you are stacking one at a time.

      Or it was measured differently and they used the legally allowed error bars.

      Or the kitchen scale was off.

      Or there is some missing mass from say dust.

      Or they were assholes and knew they could get away with it.

      Lots going on and it would be hard to debug.

    • Amehvafan@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Nah, it’s probably correct. I work in food industry and it’s pretty much never EXACTLY right. It’s always a few grams over or under, and if the bosses get to choose they choose to have it be under.

  • skeeter_dave@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Sup, I’m your local friendly USDA contractor who very much uses scales everyday. Consumer grade kitchen scales are terrible and will lie to you. The fact that it does not go out to the tenths or hundredths is a big flag for accuracy.

    We check test our scales twice a year to make sure they are accurate. I once tried check testing my kitchen scale I use for canning for giggles and it failed miserably. It would only register weight on 2 out of 4 quadrants until I got to 10g or so. I’m sure my ohaus is going to show a different and more accurate result if I where to try it.

    • books@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Eight grams off? That seems rather significant. I mean we use to buy 20 grams of weed we’d know if it was almost half shy.

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Well, it can’t be packaged to scientific standards, it has to be packaged to ours.

      Scale accuracy was never a problem or scrutinized until ow, and successfully helped people lose weight, so it’s not the accuracy of the scales that is an issue.

      This is blatant consumer fraud and nothing in your field can change that fact, clearly.

      • RandomLegend [He/Him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        This just doesn’t make sense.

        You wouldn’t say the same when talking about other products. If you buy ibuprofen for example you wouldn’t say “it can’t be packaged to scientific standards, it has to be packaged to ours” if you try to weigh a single pill with your kitchen scale.

        Stuff HAS to be packaged to scientific standards. Period.

        If your tools at home aren’t accurate enough or simply aren’t properly calibrated for a specific job, it can’t be the fault of the producer.

        If you use a 2€ kitchen scale that is 10 years old you can’t blame the producer if your measurement is off by 10%.

        The producer cannot make sure YOUR equipment is proper for the task, and they can’t make sure EVERYONES scales see the exact same. So of course they have to weigh with their own scales and surprise surprise they use extremely precise scales that are properly calibrated and tested regularly.

        • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org
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          9 months ago

          If you read his comments to my comments he states that following “their” (?) standards, the producers have to put much more product in order to “”““adjust””“” for the tolerance error of random consumers. Clueless.

      • frogfruit@slrpnk.net
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        9 months ago

        I remember being in school 20 years ago and being taught about scale inaccuracies and the importance of frequent calibration. The thing about weight loss is that you will lose weight if you’re in a deficit. Your daily calorie needs are going to fluctuate a little bit, regardless. Most people don’t keep activity the exact same, sleep the exact same, take exactly the same steps everyday, plus hormones fluctuate, etc. Your measurements don’t have to be precise, just close enough. People have also lost weight with sloppy volumetric measurements, counting out chips, or even eyeballing the amount of space taken up on their plate. MyPlate.gov was rolled out after consumer research found that it works.

      • Danitos@reddthat.com
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        9 months ago

        Your comment doesn’t make sense, since home tools are not precise enough and that is not the manufacter fault. I suggest you read about Metrology

      • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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        9 months ago

        Scales used for commercial purposes, such as weighing the amount of product in a package, are regularly calibrated and checked. Messing with the calibration is considered an economic crime and comes with very harsh penalties.

      • Bgugi@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I think you’re a bit off track. scale accuracy has been a subject of careful scrutiny for millenia. You absolutely have to use the right tool for the job. A kitchen scale is not the right tool for the job. It would be like complaining that you can’t take your car’s lug nuts off with a pipe wrench.

  • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 months ago

    Let me introduce you to tolerance in measuring instruments and measuring errors.

    Edit: Apparently I’m pro evil companies because I just pointed out that scales (and more importantly non-professional scales) have relatively high error tolerances (+ the measurament method error). Thus the measuring of this pasta and the possible interpretations of it have to take into account that.

    • 1111@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      When was the last time OP performed a guage R&R with a traceable calibrated mass standard? 😂

      • PennyAndAHalf@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Last year this claim went around for the Loblaws No Name brand in Canada so I went shopping with my kitchen scale, preparing to be outraged. Everything was a solid 10% over the advertised weight.

      • 0xD@infosec.pub
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        9 months ago

        “Always” is a really strong word that you should not be using in this context since it’s just not true.

        • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          For example, there once was more than indicated on a package of lentils in 1958. So it’s clearly not always.

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      That does not apply in today’s world where shrinkflation and consumer fraud run rampant.

      It us solely the company’s responsibility to ensure each package is labeled with the correct weight, not the consumer to tolerate excuses like “measuing errors” whether they’re valid or not. Companies have too much power to just not know or be able to accurately weigh or label their product, ergo if there’s a problem, they chose to have it in there. And if you dispute that, I will simply block you and move on.

      Stop defending evil corporations. Stop doing this.

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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        9 months ago

        You think tolerances and measuring errors don’t exist just because shrinkflation and fraud are things that exist?

        I hate capitalism and corporate bullshit, too, but I don’t need to get outraged at the shit that’s barely an inconvenience like missing 8 grams of spaghetti in a 410 gram package that was mass produced. That shit would happen even if the companies weren’t asshats.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          9 months ago

          missing 8 grams of spaghetti in a 410 gram package

          It’s more likely that the scales are inaccurate.

        • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yes, they are literally just excuses for shrinkflation and companies only benefit from shitheads like you to give them an easy out.

          The world doesn’t revolve around tiny minute details and jargon from a field that doesn’t actually positively affect most people’s lives.

          Our kitchen scales are the standard, not your overblown overpriced ones that are too precise to be meaningful to the average consumer.

          We are in charge, not you.

          • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            That’s an absurd take, how can a company know anything about whatever random crappy scale you bought second hand?

            We have standards for a reason.

      • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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        9 months ago

        It us solely the company’s responsibility to ensure each package is labeled with the correct weight, not the consumer to tolerate excuses like “measuing errors” whether they’re valid or not

        The measuring error is on OP’s end, not the manufacturer.

      • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 months ago

        All that speech does not change that the weighing scales he is using is cheap af and thus the measuring error is high enough. Even if the guys at the company had the best measuring system in the world without error and they packed 410g of pasta, the guy measuring at home with that scale would probably mesure a vaule not equal to the nominal one.

        Maybe the scales have measuring errors because they defend evil corporations. “Please scales stop defending evil corporations!!”. Dude i hate scales they are so much pro system…

        Srry your comment was too funny for me.

        • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          All that speech doesn’t change the fact that your standards don’t matter, ours do, and if our scales don’t match what that package says, you have to put more product in to make it do so or you are defrauding us. Period.

          Now come back when you’re ready to meet our standards.

          • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            You aren’t shit. They scales do meet standards that are tested periodically to ensure they aren’t false advertising. Do you really think these corporations don’t have audits?

            Calm down, touch grass, try to get in touch with reality and stay off the tankie portions of the internet that feed these delusions.

          • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org
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            9 months ago

            You sound like an angry oldman not wanting to accept reality.

            So you want companies to put excess product because you don’t know how to measure correctly (or don’t have good equipment). Well ask them. For the price of 410g, too? No? And maybe a paycheck supplement too.

            I want a lot of things too.

            The point is that it isn’t false advertising if you don’t know how to measure well. Is not a standar or whatever you think it is. It’s reality.

            Outside the kindergarten where everything seems so simple and easy to understand. In real life you don’t have ideal things. You don’t have an ideal measuring place.

            Sources of error when measuring:

            • The material cut tolerance.
            • Your house not being perfectly smooth leveled.
            • (for electronic scales) RF noise.
            • (for electronic scales) Tolerance on electronic components.
            • The scale subjection points not perfectly pressed.
            • (for electronic scales) discretization error.
            • Components degradation.
            • Humidity.
            • Gas denisty near the scale.
            • Gravity fluctuations in the region of measurement.
            • Surface of the sample not resting completly in the scale plate. Etc.

            And you are ranting about evil and “our” standards or whatever for a 2% error in the measurement? I would expect a 5% error given all that. That scale must be an exceptional good one.

            It’s not standards it’s reality. Why do you think measuring labs are so expensive? Evil companies?

            Try measuring your height more than once and see if results change. Hey if they change, you work for the evil companies, and you probably live in our “standards zone”.

            Our/Yours standards was pure comedy. It’s getting better and better.

          • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            your standards don’t matter, ours do, and if our scales don’t match what that package says, you have to put more product in to make it do so or you are defrauding us. Period.

            I’m not sure if I’m missing a joke here, but are you asking for some alternative-metrology here?!

            Weight is a well-defined standard, and a properly calibrated scale > your kitchen scale.

            • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org
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              9 months ago

              Yeah this guy is pure comedy at this point tbh. Are you of the “our standards” team or “their standards” team (very evil, probably eat childs too)

  • Aux@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Plenty of people have already explained that consumer scales show bullshit. But there’s another reason why your weight is not the same as producer’s weight.

    You see, kilograms are a unit of measure of mass, not weight. Weight is measured in Newtons. And 1kg = 1 * g Newtons. But here’s the catch - g is not constant in real life. It changes from 9.7639 to 9.8337 depending on your location. That’s almost 1% of variance.

    What that means is that if you take your scales and your pasta and go on a worldwide trip, then you will see different weight in different locations.

  • ɔiƚoxɘup@infosec.pub
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    9 months ago

    They all have legally allowed margins of error.they use it to their full advantage.

    Record profits is just code for “the successful fleecing of the 99%”… It has a better ring to it.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Also just as plausible that there’s still some broken noodle crumbs and fragments stuck in the bottom flaps of the box.

    • abracaDavid@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Huh? Well how do we know that any scale at all is right?

      Pretty sure that every modern scale has a “tare” button that resets the weight and zeroes everything out.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That is only single point calibration. You want more than that in case the transfer function is non-linear. Ideally at least two for the extremes of range.

        Basically imagine if y does not equal x, say y = x -0.01*x + b. Your tare is going to adjust b such that at x = 0 you get y equals 0. That doesn’t fix x is equal to 900. At 900 you would get 891.

        Generally speaking for weight you have differential or integral non-linearity. You fix both by multiple calibration points. Which leads to the range transition problem but whatever. No excuse anymore with FPGAs.

      • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Taring isn’t the same as calibration. Every scale should have instructions on its tolerance (± x grams) and a calibration weight. You’ll have to buy the calibration weight separately.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    9 months ago

    I don’t see anything on the scale indicating it was not tared. Nor do I know whether or not you took a noodle or two out of the pile before weighing

    For all we know, you tared this +20g and this is feel-good anti-corporate propaganda. Which is fine, we all hate the corporations…but propaganda is propaganda.

    Op, please post a video showing a calibration weight on the scale followed immediately by your pasta taken directly out of a sealed box. For science.

    • PutangInaMo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Your sound logic side, 8g of pasta is hardly shrinkflation and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s an accepted rounding error in plant packaging.

    • JStenoien@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      No shit Sherlock, that’s what it is in the US as well. This is just OP being a dumbass and assuming a conspiracy instead of understanding his scale just sucks.

      • NaoPb@eviltoast.org
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        9 months ago

        I’m not from the US. I only got that later from reading the comments.

        But yeah I agree it sucks.

  • schnokobaer@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    -2% is probably allowed and this is -1.95%. It’s okay I guess. I’d probably trust my cheap, regularly used and never calibrated kitchen scale less than I would trust these companies to comply with such rules.

    • danciestlobster@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Actually it’s usually closer to 5%, but to avoid consumers getting mad most companies have internal variance limits of less. Still, 2% is pretty tight for manufacturing equipment. Despite the mass prevalence of corporate greed, it does end up being better for most companies overall to be on the slightly heavy end of net weight rather than lower end and most manufacturing guardrails and in line weight checks are calibrated with that in mind.

      This is entirely due to the risk of images like this going viral and causing blowback for the company. So, to keep products on average a little heavier, posting things like this is great

  • smb@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    see, capitalism works!

    1. sell 10million packages each with missing 2% of contents.
    2. sell those 200000 extra packages with the contens you “saved” (no, not 204000 with again missing 2%, see below why)
    3. do not pay taxes on extra packages you sold as you can “proof” you sold all 10million paying those taxes.
    4. receive 200000 * price of package as personal taxfree extra income.
    5. write that one guy who complained about missing 8grams of pasta a sorry letter
    6. complain about time loss and costs writing a single sorry letter and pay paper and stamp out of “marketing” campaigns budget
    7. complain about the world not trusting companies
    8. complain about people using badly adjusted scales
    9. complain about someone selling none-genuine products on market with your logo faked.
    10. assume that those packages with missing contents could be just those fake products.

    done a full circle.

    but… kitchen scales are really bad. most other scales as well. i tried to find (electronic) scales that are actually precise:

    for low weights i ended up with a scale with 0.01 gram precison, but it could only measure a bit more than 100grams (and also included a 100gr calibration weight)

    for higher weigths i only found a scale for post offices measuring packages. the only thing the vendor “really” promised was that multiple times measuring the same thing would be showing the same weight (nope the best “affordable” scale on the market here did not promise to measure correctly, just to measure over and over the same…)

    i guess the options for accurate measuring of more than 100gr are:

    • old style mechanical scales daily adjusted
    • high priced industry/laboratory scales with warranties

    fun fact:

    after i bought that 0.01gr precicion scale, amazon showed me small plastic clip bags with green leaf signs on it as “recommended” products for month, while i used the scale to mix just small amounts of 2-component epoxy resin in projects.

    • dlok@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yeah pretty sure these are European rules as we have the same thing in the UK. Basically the current batch needs to remain above the average weight if it drops under the target weight packs will start getting rejected until the average increases.

        • dlok@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah I’ve worked IT in a food production environment and am familiar with setting up the products. When we went from catch weight (price per kg) to fixed weight products like ops we got loads of calls about packs being rejected and initially didn’t understand why until reading more into how e weighing rules work. I can’t remember the specifics as it was sometime ago but only a certain percentage can be below the target weight and above T1 and a smaller percentage can be between T1 and T2 which are the fall back weights.

          https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and-packaging-the-law/packaged-goods

          Fortunately these rules are preprogrammed into checker weighers and weight price labellers so they setup is easy it’s just getting the weights right going into those machines with minimum giveaway (if the batch weighs more than the the pack count x target weight that is called giveaway).

  • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    There are different factors. One being accuracy of the scale, then there is loss of weight due to moisture loss, and also there are greedy companies. It can be any of theese(or a combination of theese)

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      While companies are greedy, there’s no need to misrepresent their product when they can just do shrinkflation instead without a lot of consumers noticing.