Capacity

Specification of a nominal filling quantity (here: nominal weight in grams). The "e" after the nominal filling quantity indicates that the tolerances of the prepackaging ordinance are adhered to in the event of deviations for this quantity.

Nominal weight, drained weight and, in a square box, full volume on a pickle jar

The filling quantity of a prepackage is the quantity of a good actually contained in the packaging. The nominal filling quantity is the quantity that should be contained in the packaging.

In many cases, nominal quantities must be stated on prepackages. They are usually recorded as weight or volume, in certain exceptional cases also as number of pieces. One then speaks of nominal weight and nominal volume . If the product has been filled in accordance with EU regulations, the nominal filling quantity can be marked with an estimate symbol e (℮).

The filling quantity is a net quantity; it usually only indicates the quantity of the packaged good itself and does not include the weight or volume of the packaging. An exception is, for example, the wrapping paper for sweets or sausages. A prepackage must not simulate a larger quantity than it actually contains, so it must not be a sham packaging. The amount actually contained in a prepackage can change over time, for example due to evaporation of liquids. The filling quantity in the sense of the Verification Act is specifically the quantity that the pack contains immediately after filling, so subsequent losses are not taken into account here.

The filling quantity always refers to a single pack. For several packs, for example from one batch in production, the average filling quantity is defined as the arithmetic mean of the individual filling quantities. The legislator has defined requirements for the individual filling quantities as well as for medium filling quantities and their labeling in Directive 76/211 / EEC (prepackaging directive) , in the calibration law and the prepackaging ordinance as well as in food law.

The operational target filling quantity describes the value that a company specifies as the target for filling. In order to exclude a legally forbidden undershooting of the filling quantity, companies often specify higher operational target filling quantities than the nominal filling quantity.

Often a drained weight is also indicated on food packaging . This is the nominal filling quantity minus the liquids in which the food is placed. Finally, especially on measuring containers such as glass containers and bottles, a full volume can be found. This indicates the internal volume of the container up to its edge. The nominal volume is usually smaller than the brimful volume.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Verification Act, §6
2. ↑ Prepackaging Ordinance, §7
3. ↑ Directive 76/211 / EEC of the Council of January 20, 1976 on the approximation of the laws of the member states on the filling of certain products by weight or volume in prepackages .
4. ^ ^{A b c} Sigurd Reinhard, Thomas Ernst, Boris Riemer, Alexander Liebegall, Rainer Lindemann: Comment on prepackaging law . Ed .: Arthur Strecker. Behr, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86022-315-4 .
5. ↑ Prepackaging Ordinance, §22 ff.
6. ↑ German Academy for Metrology (Ed.): Glossary of Metrology . May 2005 ( PDF ).