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-   -   Wellness Cat Food Large Cans Weigh Less Than They Should Weigh (http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=86556)

TheHans May 15th, 2015 05:51 PM

Wellness Cat Food Large Cans Weigh Less Than They Should Weigh
 
We added a new cat to the house and he's like a food vacuum and I was going through food like crazy, so I decided to monitor the food a bit more closely. So about a month ago, I started weighing out the food for the first time. My intention was to take a large can (354g/12.5 ounces), put the contents into one glass jar, then put half of that into a second glass jar. But when I weighed the first can, I discovered that the first can was NOT 354g, but 334g, 20 grams short. Well, I was naturally surprised. I mean, I got out *every last bit* of contents, even using my finger to make sure I didn't leave a drop behind.

I continued to weigh the cans and now at 13 cans, I can say that most are underweight. In fact, only ONE is the correct weight, two are overweight by a bit. But all the others (10 out of 13) are under 354g. Most by at least five grams. And we're talking different flavours from different lots. Although many are turkey.

I contacted Wellness last week about this and received a return call today. The gentleman I spoke to rejects the possibility that there's anything wrong with their process. They have many quality control checks in place, etc. And ultimately, he pretty-much characterized my situation as bad luck. Interestingly, he said they checked through all their complaints presumably by keywords to see how many similar complaints existed and there were none. He considered this as substantial proof of my bad luck as opposed to a systemic problem. But I pointed out that weighing an entire can like I did isn't something people normally do. And even I only did it because of a specific cirumstance and thus discovered the problem by accident. So it would be possible to have such a problem go unnoticed. He rejected this, saying that I'd "be surprised" how many people weigh the cans. And he's right, I would be.

So what I'm asking is that anyone who uses Wellness should start weighing the contents of the cans. I reject the premise that I'm just unlucky as there are too many underweight cans. I think it's possible there is a problem and the only way to prove it is for others to discover their cans are also short in weight.

And please, if you use the smaller cans, do the same thing with weighing the contents.

petty254 May 19th, 2015 04:43 AM

Yours is a valid concern, truth is, not many people care to weigh these products and in the end they end up losing money in the process. I will definitely take your advice. Thank you

RUSTYcat June 19th, 2015 03:23 PM

Hi [B][COLOR="Blue"]TheHans[/COLOR][/B] !

[QUOTE=TheHans;1071568]...when I weighed the first can, I discovered that the first can was NOT 354g, but 334g, 20 grams short....[B][I]I got out *every last bit* of contents, even using my finger to make sure I didn't leave a drop behind.[/I][/B]

I continued to weigh the cans and now at 13 cans, I can say that most are underweight. In fact, only ONE is the correct weight, two are overweight by a bit. But all the others (10 out of 13) are under 354g. Most by at least five grams. And we're talking different flavours from different lots. Although many are turkey.[/QUOTE]

I use these exact products almost exclusively - I go through about 60 cans monthly and have used them regularly since 2007.

Now, these Wellness pate type products have been notorious for inconsistencies in the food since at least 2007....there is a thread devoted exclusively to Wellness canned, running since the massive food recall of 2007 - you can read all of the comments about many peoples' experiences for yourself. It hasn't had any new posts for about 2 years, but, I expect that were there anything noteworthy it would have been reported. If you go through there, you'll see that Wellness doesn't manufacture themselves...that's farmed out to several manufacturers and made in a number of facilities. The manufacturer and the particular plant are identified in the coding on the bottom of the can, under the BB date. I've just posed a couple of questions in that thread - we'll see what/if any recent reports there are to be had. Here's the thread: [URL="http://itchmoforums.com/cat-food-experiences-by-brand/wellness-canned-t1156.0.html"]http://itchmoforums.com/cat-food-experiences-by-brand/wellness-canned-t1156.0.html[/URL]

I have a suggestion for you to save some time/effort...there's no need to empty each can and weigh the contents separately. I think you'll find that an empty, clean can with label and cover weighs 48 grams (mine do) and that will be a constant I believe. (Try that with some of your cans.) So then, just weigh each unopened can and if the weight's 402g or more, all is fine.

I'm wondering if you've continued to monitor the weights....any updates ?

Barkingdog June 19th, 2015 09:15 PM

did you weight the can too, I bet that is including in weight of can. :frustrated:

Longblades June 20th, 2015 06:40 AM

I am wondering about the weighing method too. Is it supposed to be the food that meets the specified weight? Or the food and the can and the label all together? You need to know this but assuming it's the weight of only the food, exclusive of can, label and the glue to hold the label on......

To weigh the food alone I'd weigh the unopened can. Then empty the can, wash it thoroughly as best you can without removing the label, dry completely, weigh again. Remember the lid. Now subtract the lower weight from the first weight, what you get should be very close to the weight of the food.

A few grams difference is probably due to many explainable things. But 20 grams is a fair bit. When I was weighing cooked food for recipes for my sick dog I could eyeball what I needed to add or remove to make up 20 grams on my scale.

Oh, that's another thing, your scale has to be accurate, and I know my own is not scientifically calibrated. I just checked it with a pound of butter and three different butters gave me three different weights, but they were close, not nearly 20 grams different. When I worked in a Lab scales were calibrated by a person whose job that was. It's like tuning a piano.

Barkingdog June 20th, 2015 11:59 AM

[url]http://smallbusiness.chron.com/fda-laws-net-weight-1369.html[/url]


This explain how net weight work , any water can be counted as part of the net weight so the water in canned tuna can be included . Companies are making their packages smaller and prices higher. :frustrated:


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