“3lbs of apples make every litre of Copella apple juice”

Thus proclaims the label on a bottle of “English apple”  juice. But why this odd mix of units? (It should be said that the bottle is also clearly marked ‘750 ml e’)

The slogan may be worded this way because the arithmetic works well. None of the alternatives looks or sounds as good:

1³/₄ lb in every pint

¾ kg in every pint

1¹/₃ kg in every litre

Alternatively, this could be a new version of a favourite traders’ ploy – 3lbs looks a lot more than 1.36 kg.

Perhaps it is an attempt of emphasise the English origins of the apples that are used to make the juice – a fruity equivalent of the union jack that appears on the labels of some supermarket milk.

This particular combination of units is curious because the imperial alternative to the litre lives on in the UK as a primary unit, albeit only for draught beer and cider, whereas the pound (lb) has had no legal purpose for more than ten years.

Campaigners for imperial measures often claim in support that these are used in the USA, which has the world’s largest GDP. The pound is a primary unit in the US of course, unlike the imperial pint. But it seems unlikely that the advertising agency employed by a Suffolk apple presser would allow US practices to influence its copy.

Others may prefer the simple life, perhaps a can of “The Amber Nectar, 440ml e, alc. 4% vol”.

A recent check on prices of semi-skimmed milk in and around London N10 revealed the following:

M & S               4 pints    £1.53    (unit price 67.3 p/L)

Tesco               4 pints    £1.53

Morrisons          4 pints    £1.53

Sainsbury’s        4 pints    £1.53

Corner shop       2 litres    £1.19    (unit price 59.5 p/L)

Iceland             4 pints    £1.00    (unit price 44.0 p/L)

Costco           4 x 2 litres  £3.19    (unit price 39.9 p/L)

Now we are not suggesting that price-fixing is occurring among the major supermarkets – this was investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) a short time ago, and heavy fines were imposed. But one of our readers asks if the choice of a 2.272 litre container for fresh milk by most supermarket chains is intended to confuse. Tim Bentley writes:

“The situation regarding the size of milk packaging in supermarkets is getting more ludicrous by the day. There has been a huge growth in the choice of different types of milk on offer in recent years and they are all in metric size containers, usually 500 mL, 1, 2 or 3 litre sizes. All that is now left in 1, 2, 4 or 6 pint containers are the supermarkets own brands of fresh milk. The situation makes price comparison much more difficult for consumers who have to study the very small price comparison labels which most people don’t bother to read.

I think the big five supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons and Co-op should agree to all use metric containers by a certain date to clear this matter up once and for all. Failing that, I wonder if in the public interest, the OFT could require them to do so?”

The milk displays in Sainsbury’s at Muswell Hill support Tim’s views. Milk is seldom placed so that it matches the corresponding price label. To find out a unit price, it is often necessary to check twenty or more shelf labels, and then, to get hold of that item, trawl through the milk itself, checking the bar codes if in doubt. How many busy shoppers have time for this? Many will grab four pints of semi-skimmed or whatever, without realising how expensive it is in comparison to that of some other suppliers.