Buying salmon at the supermarket: you’re often being ripped off
If you’re just about to put smoked salmon on your supermarket shopping list, to top bagels or serve on crackers with drinks – you may be in for a nasty surprise. And we mean that quite literally, because research shows that some of the major supermarkets put less salmon in the packaging than the weight stated on it…
This emerged from extensive testing by the Consumers’ Association. They conducted their own study of a total of 78 packets of smoked salmon from Albert Heijn, Jumbo and Deen (6 types of salmon, 13 packets per type), and after the supermarkets responded about what might have caused the difference in weight, the Consumers’ Association also had an independent laboratory investigate the matter, just to be sure.
Taking a gamble
That was kind of them, but the result didn’t necessarily get any better (for consumers). Half of the packages still contained too little fish. A small caveat: for prepackaged products, a supermarket may estimate the weight as long as it puts an e-mark on the packaging, from estimate. Under the Commodities Act, there may then be a margin of a few grams: a package of 50, 90 or 100 grams may contain no more than 4.5 grams less fish; for 200 grams, the margin is 9 grams.
Ten grams missing
After the first test by the Consumers’ Association’s researchers, the results were already disappointing: Jumbo and Deen do not use the estimate symbol and should therefore provide exactly the stated weight. In 92 percent of the cases tested, there was less fish than stated on the packaging. Six of the 13 Jumbo packets contained only 80 grams of fish instead of the 90 grams stated on the packaging. Albert Heijn does use the ‘e’ on its packaging. In their case, (only) 8 percent of the packages contained the stated amount of smoked salmon, and in one case there was 14 percent less. The ‘small’ 50-gram AH package did contain the stated weight, though.
Sweaty fish
The supermarkets responded to the first round of testing by explaining that the difference in weight could be caused by the fish ‘sweating’ (eww): moisture and fat leaking from the fish. But the researchers took this into account in their tests as well: they carefully scraped the (often) gold-colored cardboard and cleaned the plastic packaging. This ‘sweat’ amounted to 0.7 to 1.5 grams, and therefore could not account for the larger differences discovered. Because they did want to take the supermarkets’ response seriously, the Association then brought in an independent laboratory, but those results matched the original findings.
The NVWA has enough on its plate
Do all the alarm bells immediately go off at the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, so you get your money’s worth when you grab a random packet of salmon from the refrigerated section? No. Their priorities lie with food safety, and according to them, companies are responsible for complying with the law themselves. Babs van der Staak, spokesperson for the Consumers’ Association, does have a tip. We don’t know whether this means your supermarket receipt will be correct from now on, but her advice is: weigh a few packages in the produce section, so that you can choose the one with the most salmon if you want to.
Also read:
- Recipe: fresh pasta salad with smoked salmon
- Bonuskaart Premium: Albert Heijn makes customers pay for discounts
- 11 tips to save a ton of money at the supermarket
Source: Nu.nl, image: Albert Heijn/Yasmin Hargreaves photography
