When ordering a sandwich from a restaurant advertised as a “quarter-pounder,” a “half-pound,” or another measure that is supposed to define the amount of meat you’re having, it’s natural to wonder if you’re actually getting what you paid for.
One Arby’s customer has taken to social media to share the results of their curiosity. They weighed the meat contents of a sandwich advertised by the fast food chain to weigh at least half a pound.
In a video posted to TikTok by Steve (@scubbastevee), the poster shows themself weighing the roast beef part of the sandwich.
“Weighing Arby’s 1/2 lb roast beef sandwich without the bun and after taring the scale to see how much it weighs,” a text overlay on the screen reads.
When they weigh the chunk of shaved roast beef, it comes out to 0.4452 pounds of meat.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Steve via TikTok direct message and to Arby’s via email regarding the video.
Is this false advertising?
When it comes to the Federal Trade Commission’s Truth in Advertising laws, the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, and regulations around weights and measures in the U.S., a sandwich advertised as weighing a half-pound should weigh a half-pound.
However, it is not clear if the bun is supposed to factor into that half-pound weight, or if it would when weighed with the roast beef. Steve only filmed themselves weighing the meat. It is also unclear how well calibrated the scale in the video was before weighing.
‘I worked at Arby’s.’
Several viewers commented on the video that they had actually worked for Arby’s. Many said that they were trained to slice roast beef for sandwiches so that customers went home with roughly the weight that was advertised. However, it was not unheard of for a sandwich to be below that weight.
“Ex-manager here: it’s weighed after being cooked, but water/juices often soak into the bun or evaporate,” one commenter wrote. “We had a [0.05]lb margin of error (10 years ago) so this technicallyyyy meets standard.”
“I worked at Arby’s. We slice the roast beef and weigh it on a scale right before we put it on the sandwich,” another said. “Y’all just making [expletive] up. I always stayed true to the number, never undercut.”
“I currently work at an arby’s, and we HAVE to weight everything. We have a digital and a analog scale, we slice the meat then weigh it, and put it in the sandwhich, this comments are so funny to me,” a third wrote.
@scubbastevee ♬ original sound – Scubbastevee
‘I worked there for 3 years.’
Others suggested that there might have been a calibration issue with the scales at the Arby’s location where the poster bought the sandwich, or his own scale.
“The scale probably wasnt calibrated arby’s used analog kitchen scales to weigh the meat,” one commenter wrote. “I worked there for 3 years.”
“As an arbys employee none of yall in the comments know wtf theyre talking about, its weighed pretty much 1 minute after you order, if your being shorted its probably because of bad scales,” another argued.
“It could just be your scale, how accurate can it be moving on its own with nothing on it,” a further user wrote.
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