Operation Easter in the Imetro-SC Measurement indicates an error in the weight of 40% of the frozen fish analyzed

With the arrival of Holy Week, inspectors from the Metrology Institute of the Government of Santa Catarina intensify inspection of Operation Easter in Measure, which involves scales in supermarkets and fishmongers, the weight of chocolate eggs and traditional frozen fish and olive oil. The action is national and, in Santa Catarina, it runs until April 12, for final results from laboratory collections. Partial numbers collected so far show a favorable opinion on most products, with the exception of fish, which has caused concern due to the increasing number of errors found in the weight of pre-packaged products.

The president of Imetro-SC, Alexandre Soratto, evaluates the partial result as positive and warns about the fish issue. “We continue to have a high level of compliance in the weight of Easter eggs and also in the inspection of scales. Our problem is still in frozen fish, where many companies in bad faith continue to count glacial ice as the weight of the product, and errors amount to around 30% in loss to the consumer. The Imetro of the Government of Santa Catarina is acting firmly in the fight against these metrological frauds throughout our state”, he concludes.

Fish and frozen

When inspecting frozen fish, Imetro inspectors collect the product from industries and supermarkets and take it to the laboratory where it is defrosted to check the weight, without the ice. Of the final exams taken, around 40% failed. “The problem is that many companies in bad faith are adding more ice than necessary, and what’s worse, they count a large part of this ice as the weight of the product. They are not correctly discounting the weight of the ice in their products. We are finding true metrological fraud, with large errors, well above the tolerances established by Inmetro”, assesses the president.

Other products were also collected, such as sardines, tuna, olive oil. Of these, only one batch of sardines failed. Testing continues until April 12.

Scales in supermarkets and fishmongers

In total, 165 instruments were inspected through actions in the five Imetro regions, of which seven were rejected, for presenting errors in favor of the consumer and two scales were banned, for presenting errors against the consumer. Instruments were inspected in the cities of: Florianópolis, Penha, Balneário de Piçarras, Itajaí, Joinville, Chapecó, Laguna and Tubarão.

“Most of the errors found were measurement errors in favor of the consumer, that is, they were harming the merchant. In these cases, the instrument was rejected and the person responsible has a deadline to regularize it. In the two situations that presented errors that harmed the consumer, the scales were banned and an administrative process was opened for each of them”, explains the director of Metrology at Imetro-SC, Hercílio de Oliveira Bez.

Easter eggs

Regarding Easter eggs, 938 preliminary evaluations have already been carried out in both industries and supermarkets. Of the batches sent to the laboratory for analysis, 14 failed, which means 2% of irregularities.