Do your groceries weigh less than labelled? What shoppers can do

Fed up with high grocery bills, Canadians are increasingly calling out apparent weight discrepancies in food product labelling in the country and raising questions about whether there are laws in place to help counter that.

There is growing frustration in Canada about high grocery prices as a nationwide boycott of Loblaws has gathered steam online over the past month.

The issue of grocery items weighing less than labelled has also been brought up by Canadians on social media in recent weeks and months, including videos of people weighing their food packages and finding far less than what’s on the label.

If it happens to you, what can you do?

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has a webpage that allows people to submit any food-related complaints or concerns by filling out a form.

“There is legislation that requires accurate labelling on food products and if those labels are incorrect, then the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can take action,” Alex Colangelo, a business law professor at Humber College, said in an interview with Global News Wednesday.

Under the Safe Food for Canadians Act, it is prohibited to “manufacture, prepare, package, label, sell, import or advertise a food commodity in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to create an erroneous impression.”

The Food and Drugs Act also bars labelling, packaging, selling or advertising food in a false, misleading or deceptive way.

“There’s definitely regulatory steps that the CFIA can take and consumers can alert them to those issues,” Colangelo said.

The accountability could fall either on the manufacturer, who is responsible for packaging, weighing and labelling the products, or the retailer over its lack of diligence in selling the products, he