11/11/2008

Irwin's Fined For 'Shortweight' Bread

Well-known Portadown bakery Irwin's was fined £1,500 at Craigavon Magistrates' Court, yesterday, for selling underweight bread.

In April, a Trading Standards routine weighing inspection found 38 out of 51 Irwin's loaves from two lines contained less than the 600g marked weight.

A follow-up visit to the bakery revealed that no checks had been made to ensure the weights of the particular batches of loaves were correct.

The firm pleaded guilty to 10 charges under the Weights & Measures (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

Irwin's said they were making a new bread which "unfortunately incurred more weight loss than was expected" during the baking process.

"We take this incident extremely seriously and would like to reassure consumers that we have taken rigorous steps to ensure this problem does not occur again," said Michael Murphy, Irwin's Commercial Controller.

"We have increased the weight of ingredients for the specific products, which will, in fact, mean that they will now exceed the required product weight."

Trading Standards Area Inspector, Bill Malloy said: "Consumers are entitled to expect that the bread they buy weighs as stated on the packaging.

"Bakeries have an obligation to ensure that the weight of loaves meets the minimum weight standards laid down, and should have measures in place to check this," he said.

"With the increasing price of many foods, it is more important than ever that consumers are sold the amount stated on the packaging of products," he added.

(PR)

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