Underweight salads cost KFC $13,000

Fast-food outlet KFC has been fined for selling underweight tubs of its products for the second time in five years.

Parent company Restaurant Brands yesterday pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to 21 charges of selling underweight tubs of bean salad.

Judge Phil Gittos ordered the company to pay $13,630 in fines and costs, including $500 for each offence.

The 21 charges against Restaurant Brands were laid under the Weights and Measures Act by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and related to containers available for sale from KFC outlets in Botany Downs, Balmoral and Glen Innes on or about April 11 of this year.

The maximum fine under the act is $5000 on each charge.

The Commerce Commission investigation followed a complaint to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs on April 10, 2002.

On April 11, an inspector visited the KFC stores in Botany Downs, Balmoral, Glen Innes and Ponsonby, bought all available 425g tubs of bean salad and took them away for weighing.

All those from the Glen Innes and Botany Downs stores were underweight, along with a third of those bought in Balmoral, but all tubs from the Ponsonby store were of correct weight.

Twenty-one 425g bean salad tubs with use-by dates of April 17 or 18 were found to be underweight by between 13g and 113g.

The inspector also found the Glen Innes store had no scales on which to weigh products after they were packed and instead relied on staff filling the tubs to an indented level inside the container.

Restaurant Brands denied any attempt to deceive customers and has since removed bean salad from the KFC menu until a foolproof weighing method is found.

In October 1997, KFC was ordered to pay $23,735 in fines and costs after it pleaded guilty in the Wellington District Court to 23 charges of having containers for sale that contained less than their labelled weight.

The containers of potato and gravy, coleslaw and bean salad were found at KFC outlets between Whangarei and Christchurch.

At the time, the company said future customers could expect the company to err on the side of over-filling.

John Barker, the manager of trade measurement in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, said the convictions were a warning to other businesses: "If you short-change consumers you'll get caught."

He said: "The ministry is disappointed that a company previously convicted on similar offences has again short-changed its customers through poor weighing practices.

"These convictions were a direct result of public vigilance and send a clear message to traders."