They say size doesn’t matter, but for international sandwich giants Subway a few inches has led to a whole world of trouble.

The company was last week required by a court in the United States to put in place controls, for at least four years, to ensure that their famous ‘footlong’ sandwiches are, in fact, one foot –12 inches or 30.48 centimetres – long.

The controls were part of a settlement reached by Subway in a class-action lawsuit filed against them after a picture of a footlong sandwich measuring only 11 inches went viral on Facebook.

A subsequent article in the New York Post found that only three of seven Footlongs purchased in New York were the advertised length, while the rest “measured only 11 or 11.5 inches.”

Subway was also required to pay $500 (€454) to each of 10 individuals who sued their local franchise, as well as $520,000 in legal fees.

Before the promised controls come into effect locally, The Sunday Times of Malta decided to see whether Subway sandwiches in Malta measure up to consumer’s expectations, purchasing six footlong sandwiches from two local outlets and putting them under the measuring tape.

In an attempt to render our unscientific test as scientific as possible, three different types of bread were chosen – white, sesame and cheese and oregano – and half of the sandwiches were ordered fresh to account for the possibility of shrinking during the toasting process.

It was difficult to prove monetary damages: everybody ate the evidence

Subway – which opened in Malta four years ago and currently operates six outlets – advertises its sandwiches locally as both ‘footlong’ and 30 centimetres (despite the slight difference between the two measures).

Nevertheless, only one of the six sandwiches we purchased was actually 12 inches long. The rest mostly came in at 11.3 or 11.4 inches, well above the 11 inch mark that sparked the whole debate, but still a discrepancy of at least a full centimetre off the promised length. The full-length sandwich, for the record, was untoasted, but the other untoasted sandwiches were among the shortest of the lot.

So, what’s going on? According to Associated Press reports, the court in Wisconsin heard how Subway makes its bread with “dough sticks” that weigh the same when they arrive at stores frozen. The dough is then thawed and stretched before baking, a process that can lead to variability in the size and shape of the resulting bread.

While the dough may have different shapes, it still has the same quantity of ingredients, although it may be short “a few shreds of lettuce or a gram or two of mayonnaise,” the judge in the case said.

Subway said in a statement that it was pleased the judge had found no wrongdoing on its part. “We have already taken steps to ensure each guest receives the footlong or six-inch sandwich they order,” the company said.

Anyone hoping for a quick pay-out as a result of the shortcomings, however, is probably out of luck. No monetary damages were awarded to potential members of the class action – anyone who may have eaten a Subway sandwich – and the judge noted that the plaintiffs had recognised that their claims were “quite weak”.

“It was difficult to prove monetary damages, because everybody ate the evidence,” Thomas Zimmerman, co-lead attorney for the class, said in the case.

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