Metrication threatens quarterpounder

Hamburger restaurants may be faced with the indignity of calling their quarter-pound burgers "113 grammers" under metrication law, claim trading standards officers.

The Local Authority Co-ordinating Body on Food and Trading Standards (Lacots), the central advisory group of trading standards officers, said that restaurants would have to follow the metrication laws that came into force on 1 January.

"Restaurants can offer dual information in metric and imperial, but both pieces of information must be equal in prominence on menus," according to Dick Diplock, senior executive officer of Lacots.

Asked if they had plans to rename their quarterpounder the "113-grammer" a spokesman for McDonald's said icily that the ruling didn't apply to them as the "quarterpounder" was a name, not an indication of weight.

Trading standards officers see it differently. Diplock said: "You can't pretend it is anything other than a quarter of a pound. Otherwise, why has it got that name?"

The policy of trading standards will be to advise restaurants of their error where they see imperial-only menu descriptions, but if a restaurant does not introduce metric on menu descriptions after being warned to do so, enforcement will follow.