Walmart is being sued for allegedly scrimping on shrimp, with one pescophile saying the retail giant has been inflating the weight of sacks of the product with ice.
The new suit from Elijah Baptist of Illinois says some of Walmart’s shrimp packages have up to 11% less shrimp than advertised once the ice in them is removed, according to Top Class Actions.
He’s regularly bought the product for some three years, and was especially disappointed when he recently picked up some Walmart shrimp for a party he threw, the suit states.
A jumbo bag of Walmart’s frozen, raw, tail-on shrimp is about $16 for 2 pounds, with an advertised 21 to 25 shrimp per pound, per the suit. If Baptist were to buy 6 pounds for a 10-person party, he would have lost about 15 shrimp or about $5, the suit notes. The fish lover said he would not have bought the bags or paid as much had he known the actual amount they contained.
“We have policies in place to help ensure suppliers provide correctly labeled products,” said a spokesperson from Walmart which recently agreed to pay $45 million to customers over another food-weight lawsuit . “We are reviewing the complaint and will respond in court.”
Baptist’s suit may come down to “glazing,” a common, perfectly legal seafood industry practice in which producers coat their product with water to create a protective barrier around raw shellfish. But doing too much glazing can artificially jack up the weight of the product and lead to overpriced seafood, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“Shrimp is the obvious battlefield” for glazing, trade publication FrozeNet notes.
The weight of the ice is not supposed to be included in the net product amount, and manufacturers can be criminally liable for failing to do so, according to Food and Drug Administration guidance.
A package can look plentiful but consumers only know what they are getting once they’re at the kitchen sink.
“If the glaze was declared clearly and priced honestly, the discussion stays technical. If not, it becomes personal,” FrozeNet states.
The suit aims to represent all consumers in Illinois who have bought Walmart’s “Great Value” shrimp sacks. Baptist is seeking a jury trial and requesting damages, restitution and injunctive relief in state court, according to Top Class Actions.
This lawsuit comes two years after Walmart settled a food weight class action, agreeing to shell out millions for improperly weighed seafood, meat and poultry.
The retailer allegedly used a price sticker that was “false, misleading and deceptive,” advertising a weight that is more than the actual weight of the product. Walmart did not admit wrongdoing in settling the suit.
