Supermarket giant Tesco have withdrawn £93,000 of garlic bread slices from their shelves following a Trading Standards investigations.
Officers visited stores in Huntly and Inverurie and discovered that 39 packs of the firm’s own-brand garlic bread were significantly lighter than advertised.
Now Aberdeenshire Council have sent a strong message to the supermarket and supplier Bakkavor Foods Ltd – there is no need to lighten your loaves.
Trading Standards boss Wilma Urquhart said: “Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards Service takes these incidents extremely seriously and we were pleased to see that the supermarket acted swiftly following the discovery.
“By issuing an Emergency Product Withdrawal, batches worth £93,000 have been removed from the shelves.
“Our work is very important in protecting both consumers and businesses from unfair competition and the service will continue to work with both Tesco and Bakkavor to ensure legislative compliance.”
During their visits to the two shops, officers found that one 290g pack was recorded as having a net weight of 229.8g, representing a 20% deficiency.
Food and drink sellers are governed by the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006, which places legal liability in such circumstances on the packer of the goods and not the seller.
The producer of the products, Bakkavor Foods Ltd, has since put in place a number of measures to avoid a repeat of the incident.
A Bakkavor spokesperson said: “We confirm that a bakery product made on behalf of a customer has been recalled due to an error with product weight.
“Bakkavor takes such incidents seriously and sincerely apologises for this error. We have put in place a number of measures to prevent a similar incident arising in the future.
“We wish to reassure customers and consumers of our continued commitment to compliance and the highest standards of production.”