Over 51,000 scales and meters, and over 119,000 products and devices inspected last year. 

The Weights and Measures Division at the Minnesota Department of Commerce will showcase its work at an outdoor exhibit at FarmFest 2024 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 adhere an approval sticker to each inspected device as a sign of accuracy for both consumers and store owners. 

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: mn.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 2024 (July 2023 to June 2024), Weights & Measures inspected over 51,000 scales and pumps and over 119,000 commercial products, including:  

• Testing more than 38,000 fuel and diesel meters at gas stations, bulk plants and terminals, plus 12,500 credit card scanners on gas pumps, 7,900 petroleum storage tanks, and 1,200 fuel samples. 
• Testing more than 6,000 grocery, food and hardware scales, and inspected 31,000 packages. 
• Testing about 3,700 heavy-capacity scales, such as grain hoppers, vehicle scales, fertilizer scales, railroad track scales, and medium-capacity industrial scales. 
• Calibrating more than 12,300 objects at the Weights and Measures Metrology Lab.  

About 12 percent of items inspected required correction because of Weights & Measures inspection findings, and 9 percent were removed from the marketplace.  FY24 data does not count when a device or item 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. 

Questions for 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.  

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

MEDIA CONTACT:   

Minnesota Department of Commerce
news.commerce@state.mn.us