The San Francisco call., 1910-08-13
STAFF OF LIFE
LOSING Weight
Board of Health Scales Show
Surprising Lightness in
Staple Foodstuff
A 5 cent loaf of bread is a 3 3-4

A 5 cent loaf of bread is a 3 3-4
cent article.
And 1925 ounces is baker's
pound, not 10 ounces.
While IS eggs may be a bakers
dozen, 6 ounces is far from a bakers
pound, according to test made yester-
day of FIVE of the most important whole
sale and retail bakeries in San Fran
cisco. Not OILY did the result demon
strate that a cent loaf of bread is a
short weight commercial fallacy,- but it
further illustrated the trend of bust
mes ethics. The rich man and the poor
man who imagine they are receiving a
16 ounce loaf of bread for 5 cents are
in reality paying for anything from IL
to IA and 1-1O ounces of the most staple
of foodstuffs.
Not in one instance was Is ounce
loaf of bread sold in the five different
places where the purchases were made.
So that every possible field of con-
sumption might be included in the test,
milk loaves were bought in two down
town estat lishments, the Vienna bak-
cry at 139 Ellis street, and the Cali
fornia bakery at Powell near Ellis
bakery company on Fillmore street,
from which place a wide territory in
the Western addition is served, while
at the Homestead bakery at Nine
teenth and Shotwell streets, and the
Home bakery at 3151 Sixteenth street,
two establishments that serve the Mis-
sion district, the final telltale 1--WE
cent loaves of bread" were procured
In each instance a special request
was made for a fresh" loaf and at
each place a guarantee was given that
the bread had been baked during the
day. When all five loaves were depos-
tied at the offices of the board of health
and placed upon the delicate scales in
the chemical laboratory by Chief As
sistant Chemist F. Westsit was disclosed
that the bakers conception of pound
loaf of bread amounts to 1926 ounces,
just 2.75 ounces under the standard
weight. 1t was impossible that the
difference could have resulted from
evaporation during the baking process,
as the further precaution was taken
that the test should be made with fresh
moist bread, precluding the chance of
testing with bread which had been ex-
posed to the action of the atmosphere.
The short weight bread is not com
mercial fraud. 1t is purely an ethical
one, because there is no law in the
state or in the city regulating the
weight of a loaf of bread If the baker
wished to fill his dough with baking
powder, turn out of his oven an eight
ounce loaf and sell it for cents, the
public must buy it or use no bread. AS
the price of labor increases the laborer
pays more for his loaf of bread, and
until some statute is written and some
ordinance spread on the law books reg
ulating the weight of bread the in
crease in the cost of materials can
ever be met by the baker through the
diminishing loaf.
Mission househoulders receive the
largest loaf, the Wholesale firm of the
Homestead baking company distribut-
ing in that territory a 14.1 ounce milk
loaf The Missionite purchasing from
the retail store and bakery of the Home
baking company at 3151 Sixteenth
street gets about the second best, the
loaf from this place when placed on
the scale showing 1875 ounces. The
California baking company, at Eddy
and Fillmore streets, sends a 12.5 ounce
while the California bakery, in Powell
street, is guilty of II ounce loaf.
There is no cheat, no fraud. no de-
Continued On page 2. Column