I.
The food industry is a bustling beehive in today’s modern society, providing hundreds of thousands of people with snacks and treats that are both cheap and tasty. The field of good eats is a very busy thing, and taking shortcuts are very easy things to do in order to save money and make a profit. This research aims to figure out if consumers are really getting their bang for their buck. Is the food industry really giving us our money’s worth, or are they cheating us out of our hard-earned money. Let’s find out in this study of “Make or Break.”
II.
The nature of snack items is very simple; open, eat, and forget. It’s a practically mindless attitude, but the quick satisfaction is enjoyable nonetheless. With this context in mind, it is more than likely that we forget the details on the actual cover of these snack items. Net weight gives us some sort of idea of how much we are getting out of our money’s worth, but forgetting about this is pretty simple. This lead the researcher to believe that this mindset allows snack providers to abuse their customers and give them less than what they are actually paying for. After all, taking a few shortcuts in the production process can save a bunch of money with the grand scale of the industry. We’re going to see whether or not we really are getting what we payed for.
III.
Materials to be used in this project are the following:
-1 regular sized Dark Chocolate KitKat
-1 25-piece pack of Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum
-1 Electronic Scale
-Laptop for recording of data
IV.
The procedure for this procedure is very simple:
Step 1: Zero the scale.
Step 2: Place item on scale.
Step 3: Make note of value.
-Each item will have 3 trials for weighing.
-Zero scale after each trial.
-Do not apply any force to the scale while placing food items.
-Follow the uncertainty of the scale (±.01g)
V.
Dark Chocolate KitKat (Net Weight = 45g)
Trial 1 48.03 ± .01 g
Trial 2 47.93 ± .01 g
Trial 3 48.01 ± .01 g
Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum (Net Weight = 36.5g)
Trial 1 39.27 ± .01 g
Trial 2 37.79 ± .01 g
Trial 3 37.79 ± .01 g
VI.
Based on the results, both products actually give more than what the net weight gives.The KitKat has approximately a 3 gram excess than the 45 gram net weight, and the 25-pack of Juicy Fruit gives an excess of over 1 gram.
VII.
Based on the results of the experiment, the researcher has come to the conclusion that snack providers actually give a small excess over what the packaging actually states. Whether it be because of imprecise production values or human errors, the reason for this is unknown at the time. The researcher cannot soundly state that this applies to all snack products, but is evidently the case for Juicy Fruit and KitKats.
VIII.
The researcher suggests that this study be continued with other snack products to find out if this trend continues or not with other brands. Future researchers may narrow down the products by their companies to specifically find out which companies provide more, less, or exactly what they are offering to their customers.
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