BREAD WEIGHTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 257, 17 August 1950, Page 6

BREAD WEIGHTS

SURVEY BY LABOUR DEPARTMENT REPLIES TO QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 16. “The reports of my department, which has made continuing checks of bread weights, disclose that there is no increasing tendency to sell shortweight bread,” said the Minister of Labour (Mr Sullivan) in the House of Representatives this afternoon in reply to Mr R. McKeen (Opposition, Island Bay), who had asked whether the Minister’s attention had been drawn to the increasing number of bakers who were supplying under-weight bread. Mr Sullivan said that for the year 1949-50 8240 loaves were checked, the number outside the margin of error accepted by the department being 1498, including some loaves which were overweight. “In view of representations made to me last May I arranged for special checks on a Dominion-wide basis,” he added. “The results are now coming to hand, and those received for five districts, including Auckland, are satisfactory. It is probable that Court action will follow upon two Auckland checks. There have been Court cases each year for short-weight bread, and generally the fines imposed appear to have met the case. Some Court actions are at present pending. “Complaints received by the department indicate that there is much confusion regarding the correct weight of the ‘split’ .loaf. This is required to be lib 12oz, not 21b as frequently assumed. The weight for tliis type of loaf was fixed many years ago.”