Weights and measures laws ensure that consumers get what they pay for whether it is a gallon of gas, a pound of lunchmeat or the same price at the checkout scanner as the one on the shelves.
This week (March 1-7) was Weights and Measures Week, a time when the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, or VDACS, joined the National Conference on Weights and Measures to commemorate the anniversary of John Adams’ signing of the first weights and measures law on March 2, 1799.
That law required that each state receive a set of weights and measures standards.
The VDACS Office of Weights and Measures is responsible for the inspection of all commercially used weighing and measuring devices in the Commonwealth.
“Several weights and measure artifacts are maintained in VDACS’ Richmond office, however none of these can be attributed to John Adams,” Michael Wallace of VDACS’ office of communication.
The VDACS Office of Weights and Measure administers the state’s laws and regulations designed to maintain the integrity of transactions between buyers and sellers and prevent unfair competition in the marketplace.
Inspectors in the Office of Weights and Measures use highly accurate field standards and equipment to test commercial scales, meters and scanning equipment, and check the weight of packaged products. Inspectors are also responsible for testing the accuracy of fuel pumps and sampling of motor fuels.
The office licenses individuals who certify the accuracy of weight tickets, called public weighmasters.
There are currently 835 registered public weighmasters in Virginia. The qualifications to become a weighmaster are set forth in Virginia Code 3.2-5800 et seq., and specifically, 3.2-5802.
In addition to its main office in Richmond, the Office of Weights and Measures operates three regional weights and measures offices: Ivor, Harrisonburg, and Wytheville.
During 2018, the office performed testing and inspections.
They conducted more than 87,000 tests of weights and measures devices used in commercial transactions were tested in fiscal year 2018 and more than 19,000 for inaccuracies were rejected.
These devises include gas pumps, LPG meters, large capacity scales, supermarket scales, Wallace said in an email.
“A 20 percent rejection/condemnation rate is not considered high as this rate has held steady during the last five years, as it has averaged between 19 and 23 percent,” he said.
The difference between “rejected” and “condemned” makes a big difference. In the event a device is rejected, the owner is allotted a certain time period to fix the issue.
In the event a device is condemned, the device is taken out of service until it is corrected.
“It is important to note that not all rejections and condemnations are for tolerance issues. Rejections and condemnations may be the result of specification violations such as labeling, lighting, sealing of the device, et cetera,” Wallace wrote. “In most cases, the violation is not affecting the amount of a commodity the customer receives. In the event it does, the device is taken out of service immediately.”
The Office of Weights and Measures collected and tested nearly 5,300 samples of motor fuels to verify octane ratings, percentage of ethanol and checked for the presence of water in the fuel, conducted nearly 60,000 point-of-sale inspections to verify the accuracy of store checkout scanners, and verified the accurate weighing of more than 16,200 store-wrapped packaged items.
During the year, they investigated 520 consumer complaints and conducted more than 11,234 calibrations of standards of mass and volume