Illegal income from underweight packaged food in the world is $30 bln per year; the money goes to the manufacturers, Ruth Genkina, PhD, department head at Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology, said at the Chamber of Commerce scientific council for consumer market development.
The most significant violations in the 21st century involve packaged goods – the packages that are sealed in the absence of buyers.
“The global turnover of packaged goods is $1 trln per year. Illegal income in this segment is at least $30 bln, and the money goes to the manufacturers. Buyers are totally unprotected, as they do not unpack the goods directly at the store. Even if a customer notices fraud, they do not always complain, because the difference is never large – about 3%,” Genkina explained.
This difference becomes significant though in accordance with Chebyshev’s Law, which says the sum of many infinitely small quantities is an infinitely large number. The most common types of fraud include underweight goods, when the package weighs less than it says, and the sale of goods in false packages, where a very small amount of product is contained in an oversize package.
“False packages seem bigger than they are, which is misleading for buyers. The empty part of the package should not exceed 30% of the volume,” the expert specified. “Also, the manufacturers deceive consumers with products in a liquid medium – such as peas or herring in oil. The jar should be labelled with the product’s dry weight, but often manufacturers write the total weight with the liquid. They also cheat buyers by selling products in ice glaze. The ice glaze should not exceed 5% of the product’s weight, but it is often much heavier in stores.”