Ross Jennings is a fan of John West canned tuna. He’s doing the 5:2 diet and eats two or three tins a week, weighing them so he can stick to his regime accurately. And over 18 months, he says he has found a pattern that can’t be just chance.
The graphic designer from east London says: “Whenever I use John West tuna chunks, the drained weight is usually around 90g – way below the 112g drained weight stated on the label. Sometimes it is as low as 85g.”
He considers it unlikely that it’s just the odd rogue tin. Over the period in question he has bought cans from different stores, usually in multipacks of four and lately in packs of six.
“I’ve tested the scales by weighing water (where 100ml weighs 100g). I use a tuna drainer to squeeze out the brine. Perhaps John West drains its test cans by another method, but it must be including a fair whack of water in its calculations.
“I don’t mind because the reduced calorie intake helps usher in the sweet treat, but a near-20% mark-up on weight is a bit odd.”
This is the first time anyone has approached Guardian Money with allegations about underperforming tins of tuna. We are more used to looking into claims that financial products are punching below their weight. But we’re an open-minded bunch so decided to carry out our own (small-scale and not massively scientific) test.
We dug out our Salter electronic scales and weighed the contents of 10 John West tuna tins. Four of the 10 did appear to be underweight. However, none of these were as short as those allegedly encountered by Jennings. And things were complicated by the fact that another four of the tins weighed more than it said on the packaging.
Five of the tins we tested were of the type bought by Jennings, where the drained weight was listed as 112g. We drained the tuna as we thought most consumers would: with a small squeeze of the lid. The weights varied widely: from 92g (a 17.85% shortfall) to 118g, with two of the tins apparently underweight.
We also tested five tins of the company’s No Drain tuna which, at around £2, is twice the price of the standard can. It has a claimed weight of 120g of fish, but when we weighed the contents (with no draining) two appeared to be underweight (109g and 112g), two were slightly more (121g and 122g), and one was bang on.
It’s not the first time fish packaging issues have raised concerns. In 2012, consumer group Which? decided to investigate after a reader claimed they were getting short measures on smoked salmon. Which? bought 32 packs of smoked salmon in various supermarkets and discovered that 25 (or 78%) were underweight. The rest weighed more. This prompted the consumer group to ask food expert Prof Chris Elliott to investigate underweight produce.
In 2015, Prof Elliott’s researchers at Queen’s University Belfast revealed they had weighed 467 food products from supermarkets in Northern Ireland and found 73 below the recognised margin of error. Items included Heinz Chunky Veg Big Soup, Green Giant sweetcorn and Del Monte peaches – all in tins. Six out of eight samples of Tesco Finest smoked salmon did not contain the claimed amount of fish, they found.
Alex Neill, a managing director at Which?, says: “We’ve previously seen cases where food items weigh significantly less than what was claimed on the packet. Manufacturers need to make sure consumers aren’t getting short-changed. Where products are found to be misleading consumers, Trading Standards should take action.”
John West told us that its cans conformed with the Codex rules that governed the drained weight of fish. It says: “We undertake various tests … to ensure they meet our specifications and conform to the legal requirements on net and drained weight. In line with agreed industry practice we use the international Codex method to determine the average drained weight of each batch of tuna. This calculates the weight of the sampled tuna after simply draining the added liquid (brine, spring water, olive oil or sunflower oil). However, as tuna is cooked before being packed, some liquid is absorbed during the cooking process; squeezing the tuna too much not only removes this, but also some naturally occurring liquid, and is discouraged under the Codex method.
“To enjoy tuna at its best we would encourage readers not to squeeze the contents of a can too vigorously as this will impact the flavour and texture.”
Back in east London it’s not all bad news. Jennings says his short measures of tuna are helping him shed the pounds. In 18 months he has lost three stone by watching his calories two days a week.
