Watch: Shopper Weighs Chocolate Milk Cartons At Maltese Convenience Store And Makes A Startling Discovery
Concerned that he might have been purchasing less milk than he was actually paying for, a Maltese shopper recently decided to check things out for himself.
Daniel Borg told Lovin Malta that his suspicion was aroused when he started noticing how light the cartons – which purportedly contained one litre of milk – felt in his hands.
“When I told my wife, she told me to keep the cartons closed and that she would measure them in millilitres,” Borg said.
He said that blatant discrepancies emerged as soon as they started weighing the cartons, with two protein-enriched chocolate milk cartons weighing 650ml and 730ml and a regular white milk carton weighing 1054ml.
Weighing scales and milk cartons in hand, Borg returned to the convenience store.
“The worker told me that it’s not their fault, that they have been receiving such complaints for a while and that I could replace them,” he said.
“I told her that I brought my weighing scales with me and she stood by my side as I picked two new cartons out from the fridge.”
As a video taken by Borg shows, the first chocolate milk carton weighed 732ml and the second 942ml, a significant discrepancy of almost 200ml.
“I weighed more milk cartons and all of them were under 1 litre, but I ended up buying two which were near the 900ml mark. It’s still not a litre as promoted but at least it’s not a 300ml discrepancy.”
Borg questioned how such a state of play could be allowed in Malta and whether “everything has become acceptable”, comparing it to someone filling their car with 50l of petrol but only receiving 45l.
Benna told Lovin Malta that internal investigations indicate that Borg’s case appears to be an isolated incident.
“Upon receiving the video footage you provided, our team promptly initiated an internal investigation to evaluate the accuracy of the volume measurements on our milk cartons,” a Benna spokesperson said.
“We recognise the critical importance of transparency and precision in product information, and we are unwaveringly committed to maintaining the trust our customers have in the Benna brand.”
“Initial findings indicate that this appears to be an isolated incident. Multiple cartons from the same batch were thoroughly examined and found to have the correct volume. However, we acknowledge the inherent challenges in our production process, where the machinery produces approximately 100 cartons per minute.”
“We want to assure our customers, partners, and the general public that we regularly revise our quality control processes to prevent such discrepancies from happening. We are also investing in additional measures to augment the accuracy of our product information.”
“Whilst we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this isolated incident may have caused, we want to emphasise our commitment to ensuring that our products consistently meet the highest standards of quality and accuracy.”
“To this end, should consumers discover any PRO Milk Chocolate carton not properly filled, we urge them to contact our customer care via telephone on 21224472 to report the issue and arrange for a replacement. This policy applies to all of our products.”
A spokesperson for the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority said they are going to look into this issue.
Amid the global inflation crisis, several food manufacturers have decreased the size of their products while keeping the price tag the same, a phenomenon known as “shrinkflation”. The logic is that consumers tend to notice price hikes more than size decreases and that shrinking products is therefore a less controversial way of rising prices.
Have you noticed certain food products getting smaller?
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