Twelve ounce steak safe as Brussels backs off

Pubs can continue giving the weight of steaks in ounces on the menu after the European Commission (EC) confirmed that plans to outlaw imperial weights and measures have been shelved.

The 2009 deadline for metric measures to finally replace pounds and ounces, feet and inches and other imperial measures has been scrapped. Conservative MEP Giles Chichester said he had received confirmation from the EC industry commissioner Gunther Verheugen that dual marking in imperial and metric could continue indefinitely.

While the good old British pint of beer was safe under a previous concession, the status of the yard of ale was less certain. Pubs would also have had to replace a 12 ounce steak with a 0.37 kilo version, while a quarter pound burger would have become the less catchy 113.3-grammer.

The move was welcomed by Tony Goodger, trade sector manager - foodservice for the Meat & Livestock Commission. He said: "We'd already noticed that some pub menus had stopped giving the weight of steaks in advance of the deadline."

While the change of heart by the EC has been claimed as a victory by the UK anti-metric movement, Goodger suggested that European businesses might also have bought some pressure to bear based on the fact that the USA, a major export market, still uses imperial measures.

The UK press has often highlighted cases such as Sunderland greengrocer Steven Thoburn, the 'metric martyr' who was prosecuted for selling fruit and veg by the pound, as examples of EC bureaucracy. In fact, the EC has never bought a prosecution, with zealous local authority trading standards officers behind such cases.