Firm fined for chocolate tin size

A biscuit firm has been fined because its Giant Chocolate Fingers were being sold in tins that were too big.

Trading standards in Cambridgeshire took action against St Albans-based Burton's Foods because the biscuits only filled two-thirds of the tin.

The firm is one of the first to be prosecuted under laws designed to clamp down on the use of too much packaging.

It admitted breaching regulations and applying a false trade description and was fined £7,000 by magistrates.

'Short measure'

Cambridge magistrates heard that Trading Standards received complaints by a shopper "shocked by the short measure" of the biscuits.

The packets of biscuits were on sale at the Bar Hill store in Cambridge on 8 December 2004, said a Trading Standards spokesman.

"The tins were 167mm (6.675 inches) but, once opened, the shopper discovered the average length of the actual 'Giant' biscuits was only 116mm (4.567 inches) - approximately 2/3rds of the length of the container," he continued.

A spokesman for Burton's Foods was unavailable for comment