- Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
DOS, an agency at the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, enforces accuracy requirements and other standards relating to weighing and measuring devices and their use in the sale of food, fuels, and other products. Each year, gas pump meters and food scales are regularly calibrated to accurately read the weights and volumes of products, ensuring that you get exactly what you pay for.
“From the food you buy for your backyard cookout, to the gas you use to get to your favorite summer spot, the Division of Standards is dedicated to ensuring that consumers in Massachusetts are getting the value they are promised when making purchases,” said Compliance Supervisor Michael Ryan.
Meats: Pay for the Product, Not the Packaging
When purchasing ground beef patties at the counter for your next barbecue or picnic, you are expecting to pay for the price of the burgers and not the protective plastic wrap surrounding them. Determined to verify price accuracy and ensure that stores were correctly charging customers for products, not packaging, the DOS team recently hit the road to survey stores from Pittsfield to Nantucket, and inspected 268 items of meat, poultry, seafood, and deli products.
How is the weight of meat without packaging calculated? “Tare weight” refers to the weight of the empty packaging without any contents. Once this value is known, it is subtracted from the entire weight of product + packaging (“gross weight”) to determine whether the customer is only paying for the food itself. Determining the tare weight is crucial to ensuring that you are not paying for the packaging. Upon inspection, the DOS team found that 13% of 76 stores had at least one tare weight failure.
In addition, DOS tests the scales that retailers, manufacturers, and/or distributors use to determine the net weight posted on grocery products, as well as the method by which staff use those scales. Over time and with regular use, scales can go off balance due to wear, damage, or other environmental factors. Also, products like fish should be weighed without extras, such as ice or water, included. For example, if you are paying $40/lb. for lobster, you wouldn’t want the scale to include the weight of ice or water as well.
DOS tests scales and products to make sure that the amount of product for which retailers charge their customers is accurate and then works with every store to fix failures quickly and efficiently.
Gas Pumps: Making Sure Meters Along the Mass Pike Measure Up
“Summer is a busy time for day trips and vacations, so my team and I recently completed our annual spring testing of the gas stations along the Mass Pike,” said Ryan. “We tested all 349 gas pumps to ensure that the fuel consumers are buying is of the correct octane and quantity.”
All gas stations pumps are inspected annually to make sure the meters are calibrated accurately. For the 11 gas stations along the Mass Pike, all meters were accurate and correct except one at the rest stop in Charlton eastbound. This meter was put out of service until it was repaired and checked again. It is now accurate.
Due to the dedication of the DOS inspection team, we can enjoy our summer fun knowing that we did indeed get what we paid for.
