Wise underfills potato chip bags, lawsuit claims

It is unwise to underfill potato chip bags, claim the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the makers of Wise potato chip bags.

Two consumers filed a suit Monday in a Manhattan federal court, claiming Berwick, Pennsylvania-based Wise Foods Inc. fills its bags less than halfway — “58(%) to 75(%) empty, well above the 30 percent that might be justified,” according to the suit — deceiving them into overpaying, the network CNBC reported.

In the complaint, the plaintiffs referred to a 2.75-ounce bag of Wise Ridgies Sour Cream and Onion chips that they said was filled to only 2.5 inches of its 10-inch capacity. The plaintiffs compared the bags to PepsiCo Inc.’s Ruffles potato chip bags, which have higher amount of chips in a similar-size bag.

The plaintiffs said they would have paid less for their chips had they known about the empty space or if bags were "proportioned" to their contents, even if the labels showed the correct weights, according to the network. The proposed class action seeks damages for consumers in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as packaging changes. Wise did not respond to requests for comment.