Are supermarket scales being calibrated for paper produce bags?

Single-use plastic produce bags are gone from the supermarkets but one shopper is worried customers could be paying extra for their fruit and veges thanks to paper bags.

A Lower Hutt Pak’nSave shopper was at the supermarket on Sunday and noticed the produce scales had not been calibrated to account for the weight of paper bags, since the ban on single-use plastic bags came into force.

But Foodstuffs said checkout scales were adjusted to account for the difference.

The shopper weighed the paper bag alone, which was 0.010kg. He then weighed tomatoes, without the bag, which were 0.768kg.

“I then weighed the tomatoes in the bag. The total weight was 0.778kg.”

When he paid for the tomatoes at the checkout he asked the operator to remove them from the bag for payment. They weighed in at 0.755kg, and he paid $6.03.

“The extra weight did not impact me financially. A person on minimum wage or benefit is a different story.”

Retailers needed to adjust the tare weight on their weighing instruments to account for heavier paper bags and reusable bags following the ban on single-use plastic produce bags taking effect on July 1.

A Foodstuffs spokesperson said scales were regularly checked and calibrated as part of store processes.

“We dispatched one of our retail team to the store to go and check out the scales in question.

“Everything is fine with them. He explained checkout scales are ‘tare weighted’ to take 10g off whatever is on the scale e.g. tomatoes and bag, or just the bag which is why the difference.

“This is to allow for the weight of a lightweight bag, so customers aren’t charged for it.”

Countdown supermarket scales also had a tare weight – which is the weight of packaging – of 10g to account for the weight of paper bags or the weight of the reusable polyester produce bags sold in-store.

Under the Weights and Measures Act any goods sold by reference to weight must be sold by net weight – the weight of the product excluding packaging.

If a breach of the legislation is found, organisations can be fined up to $10,000 depending on the offence.