FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:             Roger Rensberger
May 20, 1994                       (301) 975-2762

                                   TN-5978

                 PRICE VERIFICATION TOPS TECHNICAL PROGRAM

                        AT NCWM 79TH ANNUAL MEETING


     The 79th Annual Meeting of the National Conference on
Weights and Measures, July 17-21, 1994, in San Diego, Calif.,
will feature a special technical session on price verification in
retail food stores as well as other issues important to
consumers, retailers, distributors and manufacturers to maintain
equity in the nation's marketplace.  NCWM is sponsored by the
Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology.

     At the 79th NCWM Annual Meeting, weights and measures
officials will be presented with an overview of the third draft
of an examination procedure for use in verifying the accuracy of
advertised prices.  The NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee will
ask weights and measures jurisdictions and retail stores to field
test the procedure during 1994.

     The examination procedure was developed by an NCWM working
group, chaired by Barbara J. Bloch, assistant chief, Division of
Measurement Standards, State of California, and state and local
enforcement officials, representatives from major retail and
trade organizations, consumers, and retailers from a wide variety
of trade classes.

     The findings from the field tests will be evaluated at
NCWM's Interim Meeting in January 1995.  The procedure is part of
a proposed NCWM Uniform Law for Price Accuracy.  The committee's
aim is to have it considered for adoption by NCWM in July 1995.

     NCWM delegates also will be asked to vote on a proposal to
establish a uniform method of sale for compressed natural gas
sold at retail as a vehicle fuel.  The proposed method of sale is
the "Gasoline Gallon Equivalent," defined as 5.660 pounds CNG.  

     The CNG method of sale was recommended to the NCWM L&R
Committee by a working group of weights and measures officials,
representatives from government, automobile manufacturers, the
Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, gas and petroleum distributors,
and trade and consumer groups.

     Ken Butcher, NIST Office of Weights and Measures and
technical adviser to the L&R Committee, notes that if NCWM adopts
this method of sale, consumers will be able to compare the price
of the GGE to the price of gasoline and make purchasing decisions
based on similar units of measure.

     At the request of the National Association of Margarine
Manufacturers, NCWM delegates will be asked to vote on a proposal
to eliminate size restrictions on packages of butter, margarine,
oleomargarine and similar products.  Retailers report that
consumers now want more choice in the range of sizes rather than
those specified in the current uniform method of sale regulation
adopted by NCWM.  Since unit pricing is in widespread use, there
is no longer a need to limit sizes so that consumers can make
value comparisons.

     The NCWM program also will include a discussion on the
expected proposed rule by the Food and Drug Administration to
adopt an amended version of NIST Handbook 133, Checking the Net
Contents of Packaged Goods.  In passing the Nutrition and
Labeling and Education Act of 1990, Congress took steps toward
establishing federal and state uniformity in net content
requirements and test procedures for packaged food.  The act
preempts the states from using procedures that are not identical
to FDA's.

     NCWM petitioned the FDA for an exemption to the federal
preemption so that the states can continue using NIST Handbook
133.  Anticipating a possible denial, the NCWM Laws and
Regulations Committee recommended several changes so the FDA can
consider adopting the handbook, and the states and the federal
agency can then use the same test methods to check the accuracy
of net contents of packages.

     NCWM, a standards-writing organization of more than 3,500
state, county and city weights and measures officials and
associated business, federal and consumer representatives,
receives technical support from NIST, a non-regulatory agency of
the Commerce Department's Technology Administration, through OWM.

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NOTE TO EDITORS:  For additional information on the 79th Annual
Meeting of the National Conference on Weights and Measures,
contact NCWM, P.O. Box 4025, Gaithersburg, Md. 20855, 
(301) 975-4012, fax:  (301) 926-0647.