Oscar Mayer has agreed to pay the state nearly $14,000 in fines and install scales worth $10 million at its Iowa processing plant after the company allegedly sold multiple kinds of short-weight meat packages in Wisconsin grocery stores, the state announced Wednesday.
Most recently, state weights and measures inspectors found a total of nine short-weight "soft packages" of Oscar Mayer ham at Walmarts in Beloit, Dodgeville, Plover, Watertown, Waukesha and Wisconsin Rapids and a Piggly Wiggly store in Racine in June and July. The eight packages of Oscar Mayer cooked ham and one of honey ham fell short of the 20 ounces advertised on the packages.
It's the third time in two years that the state's consumer protection agency, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, has fined Kraft Foods for having meat packages in Wisconsin grocery stores that weighed less than they were supposed to.
The 2012 inspections were follow-up checks after inspectors found patterns of violations with other Kraft meats in 2011, said Sandy Chalmers, administrator of the state's Division of Trade and Consumer Protection.
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