Tesco has withdrawn over 66,000 packs of garlic bread slices after an investigation by Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards Service discovered a number of packets on sale were underweight.
During the course of two visits to Tesco stores within Aberdeenshire, officers discovered 39 packs of the supermarket’s own-brand garlic bread slices had net weights below the declared weight and legal tolerance.
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.
Trading Standards manager, 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.”