New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) said an ongoing investigation of Whole Foods Market stores has found systemic overcharging of its customers for prepackaged food.
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"The overcharges ranged from 80 cents for a package of pecan panko to $14.84 for a package of coconut shrimp," the agency said in a statement.
In its investigation, the DCA said it tested 80 different package types and found they all had mislabeled weights, adding that 89 percent of the tested packages were not in line with the federal standard for the maximum amount "that an individual package can deviate from the actual weight."
"The overcharges were especially prevalent in packages that had been labeled with exactly the same weight when it would be practically impossible for all of the packages to weigh the same amount. These products included nuts and other snack products (flavored almonds, pecan panko and corn nuts), berries, vegetables, and seafood," it added.
the DCA said it tested 80 different package types and found they all had mislabeled weights, adding that 89 percent of the tested packages were not in line with the federal standard for the maximum amount "that an individual package can deviate from the actual weight."
"The overcharges were especially prevalent in packages that had been labeled with exactly the same weight when it would be practically impossible for all of the packages to weigh the same amount.
"These products included nuts and other snack products (flavored almonds, pecan panko and corn nuts), berries, vegetables, and seafood."
Falsely labeling a package carries a first-time fine as high as $950 and up to $1,700 for subsequent violations. "The potential number of violations that Whole Foods faces for all prepackaged goods in the NYC stores is in the thousands," the agency also said. ■
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