Tesco withdraws ‘underweight’ garlic bread

Tesco has withdrawn more than 66,000 packs of garlic bread from stores after an investigation found customers were being ripped off with light loaves.

Tesco has withdrawn 66,000 packets of garlic bread. Picture: Scott Taylor

The supermarket giant has issued an emergency product withdrawal which caused in excess of £90,000 worth of garlic bread slices to be removed from the shelves.

The move came after Trading Standards officers found that some of packets on sale were lighter than the weight given on the packaging.

Officers discovered 39 packs of the supermarket’s own-brand garlic bread slices were “below the declared weight and legal tolerance” during two visits to Tesco stores in Aberdeenshire,

One pack which was supposed to weigh 290g actually had a net weight of 229.8g - around 20 per cent lighter than it should have been.

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 pounds 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.”

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.