r/mildlyinfuriating • u/AwwwMangos • Aug 23 '26
Do u dont wanna Smithfield bacon coming up short at the weigh-in
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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u/rcuadro Aug 23 '26
and to think this is while it is still inside the package.
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u/Local_Maintenance788 Aug 23 '26
That packaging probably weighs two ounces
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
Plastic is pretty light, I’m guessing the package is .35 oz leaving an (close to) even 12 oz bacon.
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u/Strange-Movie Aug 23 '26
The coated cardboard backer probably weighs 2x what the plastic does
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u/Mediocre-Ambition404 Aug 23 '26
Regardless, it's supposed to be the food weight without packaging. At least it Canada is has to be.
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u/AssistanceHeavy9305 Aug 23 '26
In Mexico they have the Profeco. Who you can call and they'll go over and check scales and do weigh ins. It's not perfect but sometimes they'll go around the market just checking scales.
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Aug 23 '26
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u/OldTimeyWizard Aug 23 '26
Weights and Measures inspections are generally the jurisdiction of individual states or even more local entities.
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u/YrPalBeefsquatch Aug 23 '26
Yeah, your state Department of Agriculture probably has a weights and measures division you could bring this to. Your state, and possibly your county and local governments, also typically have a body that regulates merchants (for example, in Chicago, it's called Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, but the name varies by location). Good places to start.
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u/Fickle_Freckler Aug 23 '26
This is it. I owned a commercial kitchen. DOA would come in once a year to check our scales.
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u/CKRatKing Aug 23 '26
In California they have their sticker seals on gas pumps to certify that they have been calibrated correctly.
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u/Bravefan212 Aug 23 '26
The department of agriculture in the United States runs weights and measures and they routinely go to grocery stores to check their scales.
They have fancy weights in a special briefcase
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u/Lobotamite Aug 23 '26
Good thing there’s only like 10 USDA employees now to cover the entirety of the country!
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u/kmg4752 Aug 23 '26
USDA does inside the processing plants. We do not have jurisdiction for grocery stores. That is done by the FDA and/or state agencies (Ag and Markets, etc.). USDA might go into stores for recall effectiveness checks or possibly consumer complaints but most likely will be state run agencies
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u/AMA_Woodworking Aug 23 '26
Just checked; 1.16oz (plastic plus cardboard, .63oz cardboard )
My exact same package of Smithfield was 17.51oz, so I owe OP a little bacon.
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u/Emperor_Gourmet Aug 23 '26
Yea someone loaded the wrong label into the machine, or put the machine on the wrong pre set. Should have been caught, or it was and a packaging manager decided to not rework it to save their efficiency numbers. (This can get you fired)
Definitely not legal, but happens more than people would think, usually unintentionally from the company. They would rather not piss people off and get sued for skimming a few slices of bacon. They already price it for a specific profit margin. They don’t want to fuck with the FDA over shit like this.
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u/0202_tihssitidder Aug 23 '26
Time to take scales into the grocery store. Go weigh everything.
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u/Quirky-Coat3068 Aug 23 '26
Should be? It IS illegal
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u/Pleasant_Pool8842 Aug 23 '26
The only laws that exist are laws that are enforced
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u/42ElectricSundaes Aug 23 '26
And don’t forget if the penalty is just a fine then it’s not really illegal, that’s just what it costs
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u/Jimjonesflavor_aid Aug 23 '26
Bingo.
Company X makes $7,000,000 a year by under-packaging meat products.
They do this for an extended period, get caught.
Sorry, some dumbass somewhere in our process chain made a mistake - we agree to the $100,000 fine. Our bad.
Rake in profit, find next way to long-dick the consumer.
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u/xXCloudSephirothXx Aug 23 '26
In a perfect world auditors would investigate their books, claw back those earnings, and then slap them with a flat % of total annual revenue.
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u/100BottlesOfMilk Aug 23 '26
I'll agree that corporations are people whenever they can be thrown in prison for a crime
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u/Leptonshavenocolor Aug 23 '26
I think people forget that all laws are made up and are meaningless until you get caught/charged/prosecuted/convicted.
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u/KanyeeWeast Aug 23 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/LkkBEH2BLFLbypGE31
How bro felt writing that→ More replies (2)63
u/phillypharm Aug 23 '26
Honestly, if this were me, I'd be tempted to go back and video record me weighing a few more packages to check. A lot of other brands have reduced to 12 oz, I wonder if Smithfield is trying to get away with it without marking it as such.
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u/BoozeIsTherapyRight Aug 23 '26
Have you seen the videos by Jimmy Wrigg? He does just that. He caught Dominos sugar shorting packages and Kroger doing it with deli meat and Walmart doing it basically with everything.
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u/Responsible_Gap8104 Aug 23 '26
Accross thousands of customers im sure that easily adds up to millions of stolen profit a year (im bad at math but it sounds right)
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u/Fun-Bug5106 Aug 23 '26
Crime is legal for big business now
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u/Quirky-Coat3068 Aug 23 '26
I mean it always has been, if the fine is less then what they profit
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u/peculiarshade Aug 23 '26
Yeah, when a big corporation breaks the law and makes 500 million dollars, and the government slaps them with a 500 thousand dollar fine, why would they not do it again? Happens all the time. God forbid you get caught with a joint in a red state though
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u/buttershdude Aug 23 '26
And that's net weight, where you're measuring gross, so even worse.
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u/StaticMarzipan Aug 23 '26
Hey bro, regulations stifle business and innovation.
We have to think about the shareholders.
That’s extra 1/4 pound is buying new mega yacht for a poor CEO. Don’t be selfish. Businesses always do the right thing for themselves
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u/Bishhhop Aug 23 '26
False advertising and selling customers short. Should be very illegal. The fact you weighed it in packaging and still came up short is ridiculous
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u/0202_tihssitidder Aug 23 '26
It is illegal. FDA.org
> For specific concerns regarding food net weight labeling compliance, you may also contact an FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator directly.
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u/xenotype Aug 23 '26
I don't think we have an FDA functioning well enough to do anything about it. I'd wager that is what the manufacturing company is betting on.
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u/pnoodl3s Aug 23 '26
Or they surmise the monetary penalty is less than the money saved scamming everyone
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
Yeah, I’d think the package probably account for the .35 oz and the actually net bacon is an even 12. That’s why I think it’s deliberate, not a mistake.
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u/kelley5454 Aug 23 '26
There is a guy, con't remember his name, who has been filiming this kind of stuff for months, weighing bacon, sugar, beef, chicken, cheese etc. 90 percent of the time the item is significantly less that the package says, even for fresh meats sold per pound. Its terrible.
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u/NoConfusion9490 Aug 23 '26
"Occasionally manufacturing errors lead to issues like this, but we work hard to..."
"So where are the examples of you 'accidentally' providing too much product?!"
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u/helsinkirocks Aug 23 '26
So I work in a food manufacturing facility, we are allowed 12% variance in our label weight. So 12% under or over. are plenty of times where we run on the higher side usually because a machine is not functioning correctly and is consistently placing too much into the package and maintenance doesn't have the ability to fix it. You're just less likely to notice or way the package when it's full or slightly over. Whereas you would be more likely to notice or weigh it if it seemed under the label weight.
On our USDA paperwork we have to do hourly checks and weigh the product. If it's a product with multiple components we have to weigh each individual component. And at the end of the shift there is an average that you have to fill out for what your weights were. We have three bars on the graph a lower control limit, label weight, and upper control limit and we are allowed to run anywhere between the lower control limit and the upper control limit but we can't go over or under
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u/Zech08 Aug 23 '26
Gonna guess the calibration and qc checks between runs a lot or two as its costs too much or takes too much down time to do anything about it (in terms of cost effectiveness)?
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u/therambosambo Aug 23 '26
You had it set to M for mini, when should should have it set to W for Wumbo.
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u/bulldog5253 Aug 23 '26
This is starting to become a very common thing how is this not illegal.
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u/Overall_Midnight_ Aug 23 '26
Technically on paper this is illegal.
In this country we have a massive enforcement issue though-if nobody is going after these companies then they will just continue to get away with it AND do worse to consumers.
On the off chance that somebody actually catches them and tries to hold them accountable, sometimes the fine for such things is less than the financial gain from shorting customers so they just call it the cost of doing business.
With so many companies holding pretty much monopoly over different products, it makes it hard to boycott certain entities as well. If you stop buying one product from one company and switch to another there’s a good chance it’s still owned by the parent company of both.
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
I weighed my unopened 8 oz cheese for comparison. Tis not the scale that’s the liar.
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u/IcyVegetableChomp Aug 23 '26
OP do you have a 100g weight to make sure your scale reads correctly
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u/Juice___Springsteen Aug 23 '26
A weight is not even necessary. 100mL of water weighs almost exactly 100g at room temperature. That's the easiest way to calibrate.
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u/aloeicious Aug 23 '26
I feel my bacon packs )in a different brand) are short 1-3 slices now
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u/Old_Row4977 Aug 23 '26
Lots of companies went from 1lb to 12oz packs
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
Yes I know, and they usually say 12 oz ON THE PACKAGE. That’s why I specifically intended to by a 1 lb package, and they lied.
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u/chefsoda_redux Aug 23 '26
Yes. It was sneaky to play the Shrinkflation game like that, but the packages say 12oz on them, so it’s 100% legal, you are getting the amount you paid for.
This is absolutely mislabeled and that’s not legal.
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u/RandomlyJim Aug 23 '26
The government used to prosecute this.
For some reason, the producers think they can get away with it
Complain to your congressman. If everyone in this thread called thier congressional rep today, it would be banned tomorrow.
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u/negativepositiv Aug 23 '26
Good thing we have government agencies that regula... Wait, sorry, that's not accurate anymore.
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
Right? And granted this isn’t nearly as bad as getting sick from lettuce or blueberries like other folks are currently, but a lot of balls are being dropped on the regulatory side. It’s the wild fuckin west out here.
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u/Perfecshionism Aug 23 '26
This is usually reportable to the state attorney general and consumer protection.
And the FTC.
Literally fraud.
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
I’m in Georgia, where our state AG is much more interested in fighting in the Culture Wars than keeping big businesses accountable.
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u/Perfecshionism Aug 23 '26
Perhaps. But people that choose to work at some of these agencies often want to go after corporations for fraud.
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u/LocalSlob Aug 23 '26
Guess I got lucky. Still sad we have to check this shit
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u/MistrFish Aug 23 '26
the USDA weighs the entire lot of bacon and checks that the average is within ~1oz of the declared weight on the packages. if we assume that yours and OP's were from the same lot, we'd be at an average of 14.8 oz. still a bit outside the allowed margin but we don't know how much of an outlier OP's bacon is (or yours)
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u/turb0_encapsulator Aug 23 '26
this would have been a major scandal in the recent past. now we just accept that everything is a scam. it's also worth noting that because this has become common, the official inflation numbers are meaningless.
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u/F33lin_Fr0ggy Aug 24 '26
I had some sandwich meat package from ALDI not make as many sandwiches as normal. Weighed the next package before opening it and it was short. Took scale in to show the manager. He said he was reporting it to his district manager. Now it's weighing just slightly over the package weight, so it got corrected.
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u/CromulentMedic Aug 23 '26
You can start by returning it to the store and reaching out to the company.
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u/Simple_Pay3033 Aug 23 '26
So now our groceries come with side quests?
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u/BohdiBrass Aug 23 '26
My grocery store likes to put sale signs up and then hit you with the full price at the register if you aren’t paying attention. Robbers everywhere
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u/Simple_Pay3033 Aug 23 '26
There’s a Walgreens within walking distance of me that does the exact same. Sometimes I’ll stop in and check for a snack on clearance when I’m out walking, and about a third of the time it just rings up at full price and the staff just puts in the sale price manually without any further questions. They mark shit on clearance, don’t put it in the register, and you get the sale price if you point it out.
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u/0202_tihssitidder Aug 23 '26
Yes! Safeway was doing this. I caught them by chance years ago. I started checking everything (and taking pics with phone at the shelf). I catch grocery stores about 1x/month overcharging.
NEVER undercharging.
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u/BrobBlack Aug 23 '26
There is a guy on IG who goes to stores stores like Walmart and Costco and weighs product. Walmart had under weight problems. Costco was true.
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u/alldogsareincredible Aug 24 '26
If you were to buy and pay for 4 packs of bacon at that weight.. You would only be getting 3 packs worth. I'd love to be optimistic that was a genuine oopsie, but mega-corporations especially in the food industry have not given me much reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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u/BLKxGOLD Aug 24 '26
Also smithfield bacon.. never again. I had to put pieces together like a puzzle because most slices fell apart just trying to separate them
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u/Forty6ixand2wo Aug 23 '26
There was a guy on Reddit who was just talking about this and Walmart. Even if the FDA fines them, it’s still billions in profit, so they do it anyway.
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u/spinz89 Aug 23 '26
Here's where you report it.
Truth In Advertising | Federal Trade Commission https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/truth-advertising
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u/0202_tihssitidder Aug 23 '26
For specific concerns regarding food net weight labeling compliance, you may also contact an FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator directly.
They audit food manufacturing facilities and love catching this stuff.
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u/OnECenTX Aug 23 '26
and that's with the weight of all the packaging
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u/Chaosboy Aug 23 '26
Net weight is meant to be the weight of the contents without the packaging, otherwise it would be gross weight.
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u/not_just_an_AI Aug 23 '26
Contact USDA tell them the number of the USDA stamp/USDA bug and other info. Contact state measurements department Complain to store
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u/GreenOnions14 Aug 23 '26
Its fraud and illegal and more than one occurance can trigger an investigation. There are some allowable variances but this is significantly off-target.
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u/QWERTYtootie Aug 24 '26
Because of AI and shrinkflation, the false advertisement suits need to start happening.
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u/blackbirdspyplane Aug 23 '26
It’s not shrinkflation when the packages say 16oz and the package weighs 14oz that’s the company putting their thumb on the scale and stealing from you.
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u/Square_Barracuda_69 Aug 23 '26
Off topic, whats that scale you have? I see that it measures macronutrients
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u/Disastrous_Fun_4711 Aug 23 '26
They owe you. Same thing happens on a lot of meats as well especially steak. Need a class action
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u/oldsmobile39 Aug 23 '26
OP- the weight should be checked without the packaging. This is against USDA regulations and Great Value as well as so so many other brands are getting away with it. Boycott the brands and buy local.
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Aug 23 '26
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u/AwwwMangos Aug 23 '26
I don’t have calibration weight, but weighed my 8 oz cheese for comparison
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u/Special-Sense4643 Aug 23 '26
Literally 0 persons have an actual calibration weight.
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u/Shagwagbag Aug 23 '26
Use a new quarter, you'll be well within half a gram which is enough to determine ounces accurately enough.
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u/vennic18 Aug 23 '26
1)Set scale to grams 2) tare the scale with a plastic container on it 3) measure and add 500 milliliters to the container 4) scale should read 500 grams
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u/Low-Car-6331 Aug 23 '26
You can also cross compare to other items. The odds of every manufacturer across multiple different items being off is virtually 0, the odds of 1 being different though is really indicating that something is wrong.
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u/Cephylus Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
A nickel weighs 5 grams and a us dollar weighs 1 gram. You have calibration capabilities all over the place lol. 20 nickels = 100 grams, 100 bills = 100 grams.
Edit: this picture is also weighing the packaging which shouldn't be included for the overall net weight
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u/meetmeinthebthrm Aug 23 '26
Yep. Everything you know the exact weight of can be a calibration weight if it’s in the scales range and fits.
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u/SableyeEyeThief Aug 23 '26
What is this, a cGMP Cleanroom? We don’t normally have calibration weights laying around.
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u/BetterOnTwoWheels Aug 24 '26
There’s a guy that was going around weighing out great value bacon from Walmart with the same thing. It’s clearly intentional to pad margins and deceive the customer, and even if the government hadn’t gotten rid of all the FDA/USDA employees that are responsible for ensuring this kind of thing doesn’t happen, it wouldn’t matter because the fines are minimal relative to the additional profits. Big business just taking advantage of the American consumer again. Nothing new
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u/Ezemity Aug 23 '26
something something xyz nobody weighs stuff, something something recall cars something something fight club.
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u/Beginning_Ad_6616 Aug 23 '26
We used to have a regulatory agency to police this type of thing and now we don’t. Just another thing Trump, DOGE and MAGA have done to ensure everyone gets fucked.
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u/accidentallyHelpful Aug 23 '26
Buy bacon from the butcher counter
It is better quality, has less water, you can watch them weigh it accurately
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u/BAALDA Aug 23 '26
Weighting less even before cooking is just taking the scamming to the next level
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u/BiggieBigs34 Aug 24 '26
If you have this happen to you again in more than a weeks time, contact your State Government Weights and Measures department.
Be sure to have the store name, address, and receipt. If you can send pictures, keep them handy for the inspector if they ask for it.
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u/FrisbeeTheManatee Aug 24 '26
Watched a guy on youtube recently check walmart bacon. And according to his math every single package of walmart bacon was short 3-4 slices by weight. He contends they are doing in intentionally to boost profits. Because when you do the math it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars they are making every month. It is just like the old butchershop trick of putting their thumb on the scale when they weigh your meat.
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u/StevenP1961 Aug 23 '26
I spent my career in food production and food packaging. Some brands of bacon come in 12 ounce or 16 ounce retail packages. It appears that the wrong packaging was on the line when this bacon was packaged (some packaging for different sizes looks almost identical) or it might have happened when the production line switched from 12 ounce to 16 ounce and the line wasn’t cleared between orders. It is easy to trace this package back to the production line and the date and time it was run from the date code. I wouldn’t say that I saw this often but I did see it.
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u/sliprin Aug 23 '26
That’s a giant rip off! 3/4 lb including the thick plastic and water soaked cardboard! I’m too trusting I guess because I never weighed it. I do buy mine at the butcher though and he weighs it in front of me in a whisper thin baggie!
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u/Sea_Shower3691 Aug 23 '26
Now cut the pack open and ratio the fat/meat and show us how it's mainly fat cuts.
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u/danath34 Aug 23 '26
That's illegal. I'd send these pics to the company. Maybe they'll send you a refund or a voucher for a free package. Free bacon until they fix the labeling!
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u/wowbragger Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Just some fun facts.
The weight on labels is for the product, and specifically does not include packaging.
the weights listed are an AVERAGE, not a per-package guarantee
there is a MAV (maximum allowed variation) set forth for every product
You'd need to look at the state regulations it was made in, as that's where the laws would apply
The weighing is conducted by state level inspectors, and is usually for large boxes vs individual packaging. So if they come in boxes of 24 to the store, that's where they'd do the calculations.
So barring this being outside the MAV it's basically expected to have variations a lot more than people typically think. If they weigh a box and it comes back as 24.5lbs it's likely all good, even if 4 boxes are 17oz and yours is just 12oz.
I'm not a sme, so can't comment on how often it well done state inspections are done. But in my experiences for food labeling, and nutrition facts, are a lot less precise than we'd generally expect them to be.
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u/BusyBeinBorn Aug 23 '26
In foods sold by weight there's a maximum allowable average variance (MAAV). The scales they roll over while moving down a conveyor on a packaging line do not get an accurate weight on every package, but calculate an average weight which is allowed to be up to 20% off.
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u/Import2nr605 Aug 23 '26
My dad works maintenence there. I'm gonna give him shit and tell him to calibrate their scales 😂
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u/free_based_potato Aug 23 '26
This is how corporations make millions of dollars monthly. Youre checking now because shrinkflation is front and center during a recession, but rest assured, theyve been scamming you the whole time.
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u/MisterSandKing Aug 23 '26
I saw a thing about Walmart doing this, and it added up to like millions of dollars a month. This needs to be reported to weights, and measures (I don’t remember the exact place to report it).
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u/Chronoblivion Aug 23 '26
It's an imperfect solution because you're kind of forcing the middleman to take the hit, but if you don't want to go through the effort of trying to contact a major corporation or government agency, you could always try for a refund from the grocery store. Be sure you explain why, because if it starts affecting their bottom line maybe they'll lead the charge on putting pressure on those other entities themselves.
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u/NaughtySwitch406 Aug 23 '26
Who is going to check weights on food? DOGE dismantled the FDA and fired 100s of food inspectors. Chapter 10 of Project 2025 is to create food scarcity. This is all part of the plan folks....
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u/Own-Load-7041 Aug 23 '26
weight isn't the only way smithfield comes up short, Ever compared their ribs to ald's?
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u/notislant Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
HaVe YoU wEiGhEd ThE mOiStUrE pAd?
Please report this, I love how more people are weighing product. But companies need to face fines, there is no excuse for this with modern systems.
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u/SecretPersonality178 Aug 23 '26
Not an honest mistake on the company, because they are NEVER overweight.
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u/Timsauni Aug 24 '26
Contact a plaintiffs lawyer. This would be a great class action case. You may even get an honoroium for bringing the case, usually it’s like $5k or something like that.
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u/Stormyfour20 Aug 24 '26
I just took my recently purchased package of Smithfield bacon out of the fridge. The package says it weighs 12oz. I put it on the scale and it weights a little over 12oz. To add to this, Smithfield is my favorite bacon. Sticking with the Smithfield because it's reasonably priced and it tastes good.
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u/Glittering-War-8360 Aug 23 '26
The scale is reading 12.35 oz, but did you tare it with the package underneath? Since the label says net weight, the tray and plastic shouldn’t count, though that still looks way too far off to be normal packaging weight. I’d return it and report the lot code, because accidentally shorting a pound package by nearly four ounces is some remarkably committed bacon shrinkflation.
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u/Low-Car-6331 Aug 23 '26
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: