Chalmers Bakery in Aberdeen has been charged with producing 50 underweight packs of cheese straws and one pack of underweight oatcakes.

As reported by The Press and Journal, the case against the company was called at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on 1 April. Court papers revealed that Chalmers was alleged to have used “unverified equipment”, which only calculated weight in 10g divisions, when 150g packs should be measured in 1g divisions.

It is also claimed that, on 10 November 2015, the company sold four packets of cheese straws to trading standards workers at a shop in Aberdeen’s Castle Street, in circumstances where they “knew or had reasonable grounds” to believe they were not the correct weight.

Pamela Chalmers, director of Chalmers Bakery, said in a statement that the company had taken steps to make sure the labelling error on its biscuits can never happen again.

She said: "We freshly make on average 5,000 individual products per day and this happened simply due to human error, with the wrong weight being printed onto one of our product labels. 

"In more than 60 years in business this is the first time that an error has been made and it has made all of us more determined to ensure that every single customer continues to enjoy our high-quality freshly baked products.  We have now changed all our procedures for weighing and packing and implemented very strict quality control processes.

"Chalmers is very much part of the community and we pride ourselves in employing local people and we are confident that this one off mistake won’t be repeated."

The case has been continued until 28 April.