Woman buys 2 bottles of French’s mustard from Walmart and brings them home. Then she weighs them: ‘ripping off Americans’

A Walmart shopper says she noticed a surprising difference between two bottles of French’s mustard, prompting debate online over whether the discrepancy reflects a manufacturing issue or something else. In a TikTok video that has drawn nearly 40,000 views, Krysten Melville (@krystenmelville) showed two newly purchased bottles of French’s mustard. According to Melville, both bottles remained sealed, but one felt noticeably lighter than the other.

“I did a Walmart pickup order,” Melville said in her post before showing the unopened bottles. “These are not open. I just bought them. They are still sealed.” To test her observation, Melville placed each bottle on a scale. One registered 1 pound, 5.6 ounces, while the other measured 1 pound, 0.7 ounces.

“I don’t understand why this is happening to so many different people these days, but French’s, what the heck?” she said. Melville did not open the bottles or weigh only the mustard itself, so the video does not establish how much product each bottle contained. In the video’s caption, Melville expanded on her concerns, writing in part, “@French’s is this how we are ripping off Americans now?”

Commenters weigh in: A manufacturing error? Or something else?

Melville’s post prompted a range of reactions in the comments, with many viewers suggesting the weight difference likely resulted from routine manufacturing inconsistencies rather than intentional underfilling. One commenter, who said they had worked in manufacturing maintenance, wrote that filling equipment “is not perfect.”

As the comment explained, clogged nozzles, air in production lines, and other equipment issues can create occasional inconsistencies when companies produce large volumes of products. Another viewer similarly commented that it was a “Manufacturing issue” and that it “happens with EVERY mass produced product.”

A third commenter suggested weighing only the mustard after removing the plastic bottles. They argued that doing so might show the contents weigh the same because plastic containers themselves can vary slightly in weight.

Meanwhile, some viewers also questioned whether the video reflected shrinkflation, a term commonly used when manufacturers reduce the amount of a product while keeping the price the same or increasing it. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shrinkflation generally refers to a reduction in a product’s net contents rather than an isolated difference between individual packages.

Federal packaging regulations also require packaged consumer products to accurately state their net quantity of contents on the label, allowing shoppers to compare products by weight or volume.

Neither Walmart nor French’s had publicly commented on Melville’s TikTok or her allegations at the time of writing. Melville does not specify her location or the Walmart location where she purchased the mustard. Claims in the video have not been independently verified. The opinions expressed are Melville’s and the commenters’.