Herefordshire Council’s trading standards service is advising county shoppers that declared weights on pre-packed smoked salmon might not be all they seem; they could be getting short weight.
However, the supermarkets are not breaking the law as the absorbent packaging was found to be responsible for the underweight fish.
The issue was highlighted following a complaint from an eagle eyed consumer - council trading standards officers visited a handful of supermarkets in the county and weighed their premium packed smoked salmon only to find that out of 88 packs, 54 (61 per cent) were below weight.
Herefordshire Council principal trading standards officer Tim Thorne said: “The pre-packed smoked salmon is a high value product and therefore a 10g deficiency on say a 150g pack will cost the consumer around 27 pence.
“With the cost of a weekly shop having risen sharply in recent months, if you do buy a luxury food item like this then you are entitled to expect the weight marking to correspond with the amount of salmon you actually receive.”
He added that the reason for the short weight was that the cardboard in the packaging absorbs a large amount of fish oil so the net weight of salmon left can be up to nine per cent short of that stated on the pack.
He emphasised that there is nothing illegal going on since at the time of packing the weight is correct.