Gotcha!

Some of East London's supermarkets are flouting consumer legislation and selling underweight bread baked in their own ovens.

In a Saturday Dispatch investigation randomly focusing on stores scattered around the city, half those scrutinised were found to be baking loaves that did not meet regulation weight.

Furthermore, some supermarkets failed to notify the buying public of the weight of their bread, a further requirement according to law.

The South African National Consumer Union (SANCU) says a loaf of unwrapped store bread, also known as “naked” bread, should weigh 800g, unless indicated otherwise in store.

If a loaf of bread does not weigh 800g, it should be wrapped and marked with the weight, which may be as low as 500g.

Using a calibrated scale from a well-known butchery, the Dispatch weighed 16 loaves of bread within two hours of purchase.

The newspaper found that a loaf of Beacon Bay Spargs SuperSpar's white bread weighed 704g and a brown loaf, 694g.

Also, there were no signs in the supermarket indicating the weight of their store-baked bread when the Dispatch visited on Thursday and yesterday.

Shop manager Don Baxter said their bread was supposed to weigh 700g. “The fresher the bread the heavier it will weigh. As the day goes by it loses moisture and weighs less,” he said, adding that he would be putting a sign up in the store indicating the minimum weight of their bread.

Loaves of Sasko Sam and Star Bakery bread bought in the shop were well over the 700g stipulated on the packaging.

OK Foods in Cambridge was also guilty of the same indiscretions as Spargs. The weight of its own bread as indicated on a till slip was 700g, but no store signs existed.

Once weighed, the white bread came in just under at 698g and a brown loaf even less, at 662g.

Cambridge OK Foods owner Andreas Efstratiou said the 662g brown bread must have been a “freak loaf”. “All our dough is weighed before baking, but unfortunately the science of baking means not every loaf will come out the same. Some will weigh more than 700g, while a small percentage might be slightly under,” he said.

“We have procedures in place, and regularly do spot weighing checks, but that loaf may have escaped the checks,” Efstratiou said.

While Checkers Nahoon had a sign in store indicating their store-baked bread weighed 700g, a brown loaf was found to be underweight at 692g. However, a white loaf registered 708g.

Sales manager Ronel Crous said they had received an e-mail from their regional manager to say the weight must be put on all their store-baked bread. She said they would be doing this soon.

Only Vincent SuperSpar and Beacon Bay Pick n Pay, of those visited, had in-store signs indicating their bread weighed 700g and in both cases, their loaves – white and brown – were well over the stipulated weight.

Fleet Street Spar's white and brown loaves both exceeded the store's chosen weight of 600g. A piece of A4 paper declaring the store's weights was barely visible high up on a shelf in the bakery section.

All the loaves, except those from Pick n Pay, were unwrapped.

SANCU Chairperson Lillibeth Moolman said consumers were being “ripped off and don't get value for money”. “Bread over the shelf should also cost 10 percent less than others because there are no delivery costs and this is not happening,” she said.

Source: Dispatch online

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