Australian Measurement Institute to audit fruit and vegetable weights
The National Measurement Institute, a division of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, said its inspectors would visit 1,400 traders ranging from producers to wholesalers and retailers to check over 1,500 measuring instruments to ensure that they were accurate.
They will also inspect over 11,000 lines of packaged fruit and vegetable goods as part of the audit.
Malcolm Bartlett from the National Measurement Institute said it was relatively rare that there would be a significant 'underweight issue' where a packer put much less into a package than they should, but he said even small amounts added up.
"Most of the shortages we look at are very small, but if you look at the number of transactions over a 12-month period, these small amounts mount up, so it could be only 5-10 grams short, but it adds up."
source: abc.net.au
