Out Shopping

Cheese, cold meats, olives, pickles etc will be priced pr kg or pr 100 g

Problems can arise when a younger counter assistant (educated in metric) serves an older consumer (educated in imperial). A useful hint to ensure you receive the same amount of cheese or cold cuts is to ask the assistant for the nearest metric unit and remember that next time.

Here is a useful guide:

If you usually buy	Ask for
1/4 lb (4 oz)	100 g - 125 g
6 oz	150 g - 180 g
1/2 lb (8 oz)	250 g
1 lb	500 g (1/2 kg)

Packaged Foods

Most of these are sold in metric units of

30/50/100 g – crisps and snacks
150-180 g – yogurts
200 g – crème fraiche
250 g – butter, fat spreads, cheeses
400 g – breads, speciality sausages
500 g – sugar, flour
1 kg – sugar, flour

Exceptions

Due to anomalies in the UK law certain ‘soft’ or direct conversions are permitted on labels leading to awkward amounts e.g.
454 g (1 lb) – sausages, frozen peas, strawberries
568 ml – 1 pint of milk or cream.

Liquids

The basic unit of volume is a litre (l) There are 1,000 millilitres (ml) in a litre. Divisions of a litre are marked in millilitres (ml), centilitres (cl) or decilitres (dl)
As most liquids are sold bottled or canned, shoppers will buy 1, 2 or 3 litre bottles / wine boxes

The usual bottle sizes on sale are
150 ml (e.g. Worcestershire sauce)
250 ml / 25 cl (soy sauce, some vinegars)
350 ml / 35 cl (half bottle whisky)
500 ml / 50 cl ( vinegars, oils, beer in bottles)
750 ml / 75 cl (wine)

At The Self Service Fruit/Veg Stalls

Fresh produce should by law be marked as price per kg (with an optional smaller supplementary price per lb)
You might also see a unit price comparison ‘per 100 g’
Bagged and packed produce will invariably be in the following units

250 g (mushrooms)
400 g (rhubarb)
500 g (baby potatoes, carrots, tomatoes)
1 kg (potatoes, apples, carrots etc)
Potatoes also sold in 2.5 and 5 kg bags

At The Deli Counter

deli price label

Food is usually sold by weight. The main unit for weight is 1 kilogram (kg or kilo). There are 1,000 grams (g) in a kilo.

Some typical portion sizes are:

1 serving of meat or fish is 125 g
A typical pack of butter is 250 g
A cooking apple is 250 g
Root vegetables for 4 people weigh 500 g
A baking potato weighs 500 g
4-6 potatoes weigh 1,000 g (1 kg)

Unit Pricing

Unit pricing is very common in the larger superstores and chains. It allows for easy comparison between products that may be sold in different sized quantaites (eg 1 kg of the shop's own brand and 750 g of an independent brand). The following pictures give an example of unit pricing:

Packaged Foods Most of these are sold in metric units of 30/50/100 g – crisps and snacks 150-180 g – yogurts 200 g – crème fraiche 250 g – butter, fat spreads, cheeses 400 g – breads, speciality sausages 500 g – sugar, flour 1 kg – sugar, flour

Exceptions Due to anomalies in the UK law certain ‘soft’ or direct conversions are permitted on labels leading to awkward amounts e.g. 454 g (1 lb) – sausages, frozen peas, strawberries 568 ml – 1 pint of milk or cream.

At The Deli Counter

Packaged Foods

Most of these are sold in metric units of

30/50/100 g – crisps and snacks
150-180 g – yogurts
200 g – crème fraiche
250 g – butter, fat spreads, cheeses
400 g – breads, speciality sausages
500 g – sugar, flour
1 kg – sugar, flour

Exceptions

Due to anomalies in the UK law certain ‘soft’ or direct conversions are permitted on labels leading to awkward amounts e.g.
454 g (1 lb) – sausages, frozen peas, strawberries
568 ml – 1 pint of milk or cream.