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To ensure everyone in Singapore gets the correct amount of chicken they paid for because inflation is already eroding purchasing power of consumers, Shin Min Daily News on Feb. 7 went to NTUC FairPrice, Sheng Siong, and Cold Storage supermarkets to weigh boneless chicken breasts and filet randomly and without prejudice, and have since reported their findings.
The poultry investigation came on the heels of the brouhaha where the NTUC FairPrice boneless chicken breast a woman bought that was labelled as 224g turned out to be only 165g.
All supermarkets did not overcharge
What did Shin Min's spot check yield?
None of the supermarkets that the intrepid Chinese newspaper reporter spot checked had overcharged for their chicken.
A packet of chicken breast from NTUC FairPrice labelled as 174g weighed exactly as indicated.
Sheng Siong and Cold Storage gave more chicken though
But what was illuminating was that Sheng Siong and Cold Storage both sold chicken that actually weighed more than indicated on the packaging.
Sheng Siong gave 8.3% more chicken than indicated
According to the Shin Min report, the label on a packet of chicken breasts from Sheng Siong read 252g, but the actual weight was 273g -- 21g more.
Cold Storage gave 25% more chicken than indicated
The most value-for-money supermarket appears to be Cold Storage, as a packet of chicken filets that said 300g on the packaging turned out to be 375g -- 75g more.
Why give more chicken?
Why such discrepancies exist was not explained in the article though.
But a few plausible-sounding reasons include allowing a margin of error that still benefits the customer, as well as taking into account the water retention properties of chicken, where the actual weight of the meat tends to be lighter once the moisture is lost via evaporation or drained when left refrigerated overnight.
More background
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