Over 41,000 scales and meters, and over 102,000 products inspected last year 

The Weights and Measures Division at the Minnesota Department of Commerce will showcase its work at an outdoor exhibit at FarmFest 2023 this year, featuring two of the division’s trucks equipped with inspection tools that staff use to test commercial scales, including those used in agriculture, such as grain hoppers and fertilizer scales, as well as gas pumps, grocery store scales and more. 

Weights and Measures ensures accuracy of products sold by weight, measure or count. Commerce inspectors leave an approval sticker on each inspected device as a sign of accuracy for both customers and store owners. (Figure 1).

The agriculture community that gathers at FarmFest has a long history of service by Weights and Measures, which was founded in 1885. After farmers claimed that the railroads were cheating them in grain sales, the Minnesota Legislature established Weights and Measures within the Railroad and Warehouse Commission to test the accuracy of commercial scales and products sold by weight and volume. Learn more about Commerce’s history as the first and oldest State of Minnesota consumer protection agency: /commerce/about/history/index.jspmn.gov/commerce/about/history. 

Weights & Measures inspectors work across the state, recently inspecting scales from Lakeville to Ortonville, Eden Prairie to Eden Valley, and more than 340 cities and towns in between. Consumer savings are realized in the form of paying precisely what you buy at the gas pump, at the deli, meat market, grocery or C-store, at a hardware store, a candy store, grain elevators and flour mills. The accuracy checks also protect businesses to ensure fair payment for any products that are weighed or measured.  Learn more about how Weights & Measures protects both consumers and business: mn.gov/wmtested. 

In Fiscal Year 2023 (July 2022 to June 2023), Weights & Measures inspected over 41,000 scales and pumps and over 102,000 commercial products, including: 

• Testing more than 28,900 fuel and diesel meters at gas stations, bulk plants and terminals, plus 9,000 credit card scanners on gas pumps, 4,400 petroleum storage tanks, and 1,200 fuel samples; 
• Testing more than 6,900 grocery, food and hardware scales, and inspected 74,500 packages;  
• Testing about 3,000 heavy-capacity scales, such as grain hoppers, vehicle scales, fertilizer scales, railroad track scales, and 2,400 medium-capacity industrial scales, and 200 vehicle tank meters;
• Calibrating more than 13,166 objects at the Weights and Measures Metrology Lab. 

About 14 percent of devices, audits and packages – or one in seven items inspected – needed corrections because of Weights & Measures inspection findings, and 9 percent were removed from the marketplace.  FY23 data do not count when a device or packaging is inspected multiple times after corrections are made. 

For fuel inspections, Commerce inspectors check quantity and quality of petroleum products, and also check that credit card readers at the pump have not been illegally fitted with skimmers used to steal credit card information. 

Scales and pumps are inspected about once every two years, or in response to a consumer complaint.

COMPLAINTS

If you have questions or complaints about gas pumps, grocery scales or other scales tested by Commerce, contact Weights and Measures: 

• Submit complaint form online 
• Call 651-539-1555 
• Email complaints.commerce@state.mn.us. 

Complaints should include information about the problem, including the identity of the product purchased and the name and address of the business where the product was purchased. For gasoline complaints, note the specific gas pump as well.

COMMERCE NEWS

Get updates and news from the Minnesota Department of Commerce by following Commerce at mn.gov/commerce or @MNCommerce on social media. 

Media contact:
Mo Schriner
Minnesota Department of Commerce
mo.schriner@state.mn.us