[USMA:32730] Packers rules

[Philip S Hall]

Some of you may be interested in the following page about the rules for 
weight or volume markings on packaging which applies to EU countries. USA 
may have something similar. They are known as the packers rules and, 
interestingly, they do allow a certain amount of products below the quoted 
value. It's a way of coping with inevitable random variations at the packing 
stage.

http://www.trafford.gov.uk/cme/live/cme1002.htm
You will see this signified by an 'e' marking against the amount.
It wouldn't however allow these errors to be systematic, i.e. built-in. So a 
bottle of something marked as 0.6 L would not be allowed to deliberately 
contain 0.59 L on average.

On the other hand 0.7 L on a bottle with 0.71 L would be within the rules.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Gallagher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 4:50 PM
Subject: [USMA:32728] RE: MIT Technology Review


My hope is always that the "0.5 L" designation, as
opposed to
"half-liter", is intended to clear the way for
similar desigations for
the 590 and 710 ml bottles, i.e. "0.6 L" and "0.7
L", allowing easy
comparison between sizes.
Of course that would be too simple...
You're right that we should never get into a
habit of calling something a "half litre".
And, of course, a 590 mL bottle couldn't be
labelled .6L or 600 mL unless it actually
had that extra 10 mL added to it.
A 710 mL, on the other hand, could be called
.7 L or 700 mL without any change.
Stephen Gallagher