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California Scale Certification & Weights and Measures

✓ Sources checked July 11, 2026
Start here: Commercial scales are handled by your county office. Enter your county to find who to call. Find your county office →

In California, day-to-day scale inspection is handled at the county or local level, with the state agency setting standards and providing oversight. If you operate a commercial scale in California — at a warehouse, farm, recycling yard, retail store, or truck stop — here is who regulates it, what the law requires, and exactly who to contact.

Who inspects commercial scales in California?

County Agricultural Commissioners / Sealers of Weights & Measures perform most device inspections under CDFA DMS oversight. A scale owner's first contact is the county sealer (directory: cdfa.ca.gov/exec/county/countymap/).

What California requires of scale owners

Devices are inspected and sealed by the county sealer, and any for-hire repair or placing-in-service must be performed by a CDFA Registered Service Agency (RSA), which files a Placed-in-Service Report.

Devices used to buy or sell by weight must comply with NIST Handbook 44 — in practice this means an NTEP-certified, legal-for-trade scale. Confirm requirements for your device class with the office listed here.

Getting a scale into service — 4 steps

  1. Buy a legal-for-trade (NTEP-certified) scale appropriate for your application and capacity.
  2. Contact your county or local Weights & Measures office to confirm registration, fees, and inspection scheduling; the state program is the California Department of Food and Agriculture at (916) 229-3000.
  3. Arrange compliant installation and calibration. Where required, placing-in-service must be done by a licensed or registered service company.
  4. Stay compliant. Pass required inspections, keep calibration current, retain service records.

Common questions

What is NTEP certification?
NTEP (the National Type Evaluation Program, administered by the National Council on Weights and Measures) evaluates a scale model's design against NIST Handbook 44 requirements and issues a Certificate of Conformance. Nearly every state requires an NTEP-certified device for commercial (legal-for-trade) weighing; confirm the rules for your device with the office listed on this page.
Where do I find official forms and fees?
Use the licensing and forms links in the office panel, or contact the office directly — fee schedules change and some are published only in application documents.

Need calibration, repair, or installation in California?

Browse companies listed as serving California in the ScaleRegistry directory and contact them directly, and check the official licensing and registration information for California. Listings are not ranked or endorsed, and ScaleRegistry does not route requests to any company.

Find companies in California
Sources: www.cdfa.ca.gov/dms/ | www.cdfa.ca.gov/dms/officelocations.html | www.cdfa.ca.gov/dms/programs/rsa/rsa.html