http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3036924.stm
No doubt the BWMA will be on the lookout in the USA for downsizing? I'm sure
list members will report back ;-)
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Chris KEENAN
UK Metric Association
www.metric.org.uk
Regulations requiring rational packaging would go a long way toward ending the practice of manufacturers disguising price increases by instead downsizing the product. They would have to be upfront and honest about it.
It is understood that the density of food product varies. Thus, for example, a 500 g box of Rice Krispies would be quite a bit larger than a 500 g box of granola. And in some cases where uniformity of container size is important (such as spices on your shelf) some allowance would have to be made. Nonetheless, even metric sizes (250 g, 400 g, 1 L, 500 mL, etc.) would be a great improvement over the current laws that allow sizes to be all over the place. It would be much more obvious if a manufacturer downsized from 500 g to 400 g, if the regulations prohibited odd sizes such as 463 g.
There will be the argument of course that the goverment is "telling us what to do". I don't consider this particularly onerous because it is a benefit to the consumer.
Carleton
