{"id":57003,"date":"2025-08-10T05:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T05:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57003\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T05:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T05:49:07","slug":"what-the-e-symbol-means-on-common-foods-from-coleslaw-to-shredded-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57003\/","title":{"rendered":"What the e-symbol means on common foods, from coleslaw to shredded cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever felt slightly short-changed by a salad mix or bag of shredded cheese?<\/p>\n

You may be familiar with an “e” symbol or e-mark that appears after the listed weight on pre-packaged food products (cheese, cereal, butter, chips, to name a few).<\/p>\n

Despite “popular mythology”, it does not mean estimate, according to the National Measurement Institute’s Tony Blefari. But it does relate to variations in product weight, and how much variation is acceptable.<\/p>\n

So, how much can a product vary under the system? And, what can you do if you suspect you’re being ripped off?<\/p>\n

What does that e-mark mean?\"A<\/p>\n

You can find the Average Quantity System e-mark on many cereal boxes. (ABC News: Anna Chisholm)<\/p>\n

Mr Blefari says the e-mark on the packaging of a product means it is being packed and manufactured according to the Average Quantity System (AQS).<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t mean estimate in Australia, it’s more related to the [European Union] law.”<\/p>\n

He says the e-mark and the AQS have a French origin and “when you translate the words, it does mean some sort of estimation, but in Australia, the e-mark does not mean estimate”.<\/p>\n

According to the National Measurement Institute<\/a>, the AQS is an “internationally agreed method of determining the size or quantity of pre-packaged articles”.<\/p>\n

It’s subject to national regulations<\/a> and “is intended for use in large-scale packaging plants where goods are packed in the same quantity in batches of at least 100 packages”.<\/p>\n

Mr Blefari says it helps Australian food manufacturers export because it is an international industry standard.<\/p>\n

Associate professor in marketing, retail and consumer behaviour, Louise Grimmer, says it is helpful for consumers to understand “that the weight of [all] food packages does not have to be exact” under the AQS.<\/p>\n

While it is usually cheaper to make or prepare food from scratch yourself, Dr Grimmer says, “many consumers are happy to exchange paying a little more for the convenience that pre-packaged products offer”.<\/p>\n

How much can the weight or volume of something vary?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the answer is not simple because it depends on factors such as the size of the batch the product was manufactured within.<\/p>\n

Some shortfall or “tolerable deficiency” is allowed, Mr Blefari says.<\/p>\n

Tips for a cheaper food shop<\/a><\/p>\n

Experts on how to make savvier choices in the supermarket aisle.<\/p>\n

For example, he says that in a batch of 500 sticks of 500-gram butter, it would be acceptable for seven sticks to have a shortfall of 15 grams or 3 per cent.<\/p>\n

“In essence”, food under the system has a “97.5 per cent assurance” that the volume in the packet will match the label.<\/p>\n

Consumer campaigner Christopher Zinn says significant discrepancies in large-scale commercially produced food are “pretty rare”.<\/p>\n

Whether deliberate or intentional, packaged foods are more likely to be sold underweight than products in less formal settings like local farmers’ markets, he says.<\/p>\n

What to do if you’ve been sold something unreasonably underweight?<\/p>\n

If you notice a pre-packaged food appears less full, is lighter, compares poorly to similar products, or comes in underweight on your home scales, Mr Blefari says to contact the retailer or the manufacturer.<\/p>\n

He says you can also contact the Institute with as much information as possible, as they can investigate.<\/p>\n

Mr Zinn says you can check the weight on your home scales if you suspect something is too underweight or as an “exercise in curiosity”.<\/p>\n

And “if [something you bought] is seriously underweight, you should actually take it back”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever felt slightly short-changed by a salad mix or bag of shredded cheese? You may be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,47003,47005,99,104,47006,46999,47014,47013,47010,47008,47004,47001,47000,47007,47011,47009,47002,47012,102],"class_list":["post-57003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-average-quantity-system","tag-average-system","tag-business","tag-coles","tag-e-symbol","tag-e-mark","tag-estimate-mark-on-packaged-food","tag-estimate-symbol","tag-food-authority","tag-iga","tag-national-measurement-institute","tag-packaged-foods","tag-pre-packaged-foods","tag-shortfall","tag-supermarket","tag-underweight-food-products","tag-underweight-shredded-cheese","tag-weigh-less-than-promised","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}