Bassetti Logo (White Background)
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTROLLING THE WEIGHT OF PREPACKAGED PRODUCTS?

According to the decree n°78-166 of January 31, 1978, the producers and packagers of prepackaged products are required to provide, on the average of the lots, the exact quantity indicated on the label. In order to respect this obligation of metrology, it is necessary to control the weights of the prepackaged products in order to guarantee the fairness of the commercial exchange. These obligations apply to the food industry as well as to the cosmetics, perfumery and pharmaceutical industries, for products such as foodstuffs, beverages, cleaning products, etc.

There are mainly two types of weight control:

  • The complete batch control, where each package produced is weighed using an approved scale, eliminating packages outside the tolerance.
  • Statistical control, which involves the weighing of a sample of packages from the entire batch during its production, following the prescribed rules of sampling and time.

Regarding statistical control, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has imposed new requirements, including the implementation of control charts, mean and standard deviation.

THE WEIGHT CONTROL STEPS OF THE PRE-PACKAGED PRODUCTS FOLLOWING A STATISTICAL CONTROL APPROACH.

1/ Determine the sampling plan. This step consists in defining the targeted quantity according to the centering value and the overweight coefficients.

2/ Adjustment of the production during the process according to the quantities controlled on the sampling. 

3/ Setting up of complete and cumulative statistics on the batches to have a global view of the quality of the production.

 

THE “℮” MARKING OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.

For pre-packaged products sold in Europe, the marking “℮” demonstrates that the manufacturer has complied with the rules of the European Union.

Thus, it is necessary to use recognized weight measuring devices for the packaging of the products as well as to keep a record of the controls performed, with the aim of demonstrating that the measurement is carried out correctly.

Do you have a project for digitizing and utilizing data from your measurement instruments? (Balances, weigh sorters, pH meters, etc.). ERELIA, a subsidiary of the BASSETTI group, has specialized in the field of metrology for pre-packaged products for over 30 years. You can get in touch with us and our experts will be able to meet your needs.

Contact us