As always, your clarifications really help, Gene. :-) The bottom line for me is whether companies will interpret this new enforcement policy as an unofficial permission slip to label their packages using only SI units so long as they ensure that the amount indicated is equal to (modulo allowed precision and variation) or less than the amount actually in the package.
How do you and other folks on the list interpret the practical impact of this proposed new enforcement policy? Ezra ----- Original Message ----- From: "eugene a mechtly" <mech...@illinois.edu> To: "Ezra, Steinberg" <ezra.steinb...@comcast.net> Cc: "USMA" <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 8:53:00 AM Subject: Re: [USMA:54373] NIST Training Course for Checking the Net Amouts inside Packages Ezra, Thanks for the compliment! The current FPLA requires “duality” of labeling. The NIST Handbook 133 (Page 15) requires verification of the “larger of the two declarations." Amendment of the current FPLA is necessary to make metric-only *labeling* a legal reality. However, Metric-Only *Enforcement* of amounts inside packages if already legal (in my opinion) so long as the declaration in units from the SI is the *larger* of the two declarations. Machines that fill packages are not precise to six significant digits. Hence the elaborate procedure of Maximum Allowed Variation (MAV) which allows some packages to contain less that the targeted amount. See Page 3 on MAV in NIST Handbook 133. Gene. On Sep 17, 2014, at 12:44 PM, ezra.steinb...@comcast.net wrote: Outstanding work, Gene! :-) So, if I understand this correctly, the FTC will let companies know that they will be checking only that the net contents as stated using SI units will be checked. In other words, as a matter of their new selective enforcement policy, the FTC will not come down on anyone who puts stuff in a package that is labeled only in metric units (even though that technically violates the FPLA) provided that the stated quantity in SI units is correct. Does that sum it up correctly? thanks, Ezra ----- Original Message ----- From: "eugene a mechtly" < mech...@illinois.edu > To: "USMA" < usma@colostate.edu > Cc: "USMA" < usma@colostate.edu > Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 9:55:00 AM Subject: [USMA:54373] NIST Training Course for Checking the Net Amouts inside Packages First, I want to thank Ken Butcher for sending me various files in electronic format concerning the NIST Training Course for Officials who have the duty of verifying the net amounts inside packages intended for consumers in retail markets. My conclusion is that Metric-Only Enforcement of labeling declarations is completely compliant with requirements of both the current FPLA, and the current UPLR (as defined in the 2014 Editions of NIST Handbooks 130 and 133). Although "duality" of units of measurement (units from the SI and units from outside the SI) continues to be required on the labels of consumer commodities by the current FPLA, there is absolutely no exclusion of metric-only verification of net amounts inside packages by the current FPLA. The only limitation is that net amounts not be overstated, after rounding to three significant digits, by the part of the label stated in units from outside the SI. My hope is that the new revised FTC rules will be consistent with this interpretation. Eugene Mechtly
