On Sat, 9 Nov 2002 08:55:14 +0800, "Mike Joy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>My understanding of what happened in the UK some 14 years or so ago, is >that large supermarket chain stores such as Sainsbury's and Marks & >Spencers saw that it was going to be a nightmare to handle products with >two different measuring systems, and a need to standardise was the main >requirement. > >Metrication of packaging was never done by government intervention but >purely as a necessary step because so many products came from Europe. > >In the U.S., this is not the case, hence no real pressure to change >packaging standards, and so it will take longer to see any changes here >(especially if imported goods have to show ifp units). > >So as I understand it, no-one was *told* what to do in the UK re >packaging - it just happened through necessity. Can Chris enlighten me on >my 'understandings' please? > >Mike Joy Mike: Terry has already given a general explanation. The UK has historically had a set of food products that have had 'Prescribed Quantities'. Long before metrication, the sizes in which a range of goods (those deemed to be 'staple foods') were restricted. So, for example, bread had to be in 1 lb, 2 lb sizes (extrapolating back, I assume it was multiples of 8 oz that were permitted). Following WWII, pressures of rationing reduced these sizes to 14 oz etc. Some time in the last 30 years these sizes were metricated, so that bread now has to be sold in multiples of 400 g. Similarly, butter was once sold in multiples of 8 oz; that this now 250 g. Other items covered by PQs include sugar, flour, pasta, rice and preserves. As Terry said, UK legislation permits these last to be in imperial sizes only. That is partly because discussion has been going on for years on how EU countries should resolve the variety of PQs they use - allow metric sizes in the UK, abandon any PQs completely, etc. In the case of some items, like milk and coffee (ground+beans) all they did was add metric sizes to the list of PQs, and 'renamed' the imperial sizes to '568 ml' etc. Personally I would hate to see a situation where butter could be sold in any size. We already see complaints about 'downsizing' from the anti-metric brigade, claiming it's a result of metrication (conveniently ignoring examples of where sizes have gone up). Chris -- UK Metric Association: http://www.metric.org.uk/
