People are feeling cheated after discovering what 'e' symbol on food packaging means

There’s plenty of things we see every single day and don’t really pay any attention to, meaning we usually don’t even know what they mean.

Like features in our cars that we haven’t really bothered to understand or in this case, a symbol on the back of our food packaging.

Often found on packaging like bags of crisps, people have been feeling cheated after discovering what a certain symbol 'e' means that is found on plenty of products.

One woman took to Facebook after deciding it was allowing supermarkets to charge more for less.

She discovered the ‘true’ meaning of the symbol after buying a packet of crisps from an Aldi in Australia.

The woman fumed about her crisps packet. (Getty stock image)

Weighing the 230g bag of crisps, she did the petty thing that none of us can ever really be bothered to do (despite often moaning about it) and found that there were just 139g of crisps inside the pack.

The mum shared a snap of her findings and wrote: “How is this okay at all? [We] try to save money by buying from Aldi, but we don't even get the amount on the packet!"

She added: “More than two-thirds of the packet was air - hence why I decided to check it... I put the whole bag with chips in it on the scales first and it was 157g.”

While the details of the symbol might differ in various parts of the world, the ‘e’ mark is explained by the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences by The University of Reading.

The symbol is found on food packaging (University of Reading)

“The 'e' mark is used on a label to indicate that the product has been packed according to the requirements of the European Union's average weight rules,” it says.

The symbol is typically found directly next to the weight, so it tends to read: “300g e.”

“Originally specified by EU legislation, the shape is now specified by the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006 and the relevant image is given here,” the food labelling material continues.

“It shall be at least 3mm high. It shall be indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation and be placed in the same field of vision as the indication of nominal quantity.”

But shoppers on Facebook aren’t happy either way, as one wrote: “Not getting what you pay for is a joke and being so far off the 'e' weight is just ridiculous."

Topics: Facebook, Food And Drink

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_