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A County Durham dairy has blamed “politically correct” milk bottles after it was slapped with a fine for underfilling cartons of milk.

Lanchester Dairies, the region’s largest independent dairy, pleaded guilty to five counts of failing to comply with regulations under the weights and measures act at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Durham County Council trading standards officers found that average amounts of milk in one litre and two litre cartons were below the nominal amounts after an unannounced inspection visit in October 2015.

Up to 4,800 cartons of milk roll off the production line at the family owned dairy every hour, though the company’s solicitor, Ken Robinson, told the court that testing just five sample bottles every hour was in keeping with National Dairy Board guidelines.

When trading standards officers tested 55 bottles randomly pulled from the stock room, each one litre bottle was ‘inadequate’ and one litre cartons contained between 966.3ml and 1001.8ml of milk, while two litre cartons tested held between 1985.8ml and 2001.8ml, Durham County Council’s solicitor Catherine Hazel said.

She added: “It is apparent that the testing processes at the dairy plant was inadequate. Possibly thousands of packages have left that dairy underfilled. It is not possible to say how long this has been going on for, the general manager admitted that this testing process has been in place since 2003.”

The dairy giant was inspected on October 22 2015 after Northumberland County Council’s trading standards department tipped off colleagues at Durham County Hall.

Mr Robinson, representing Lanchester Dairies Ltd said: “They’ve put their hands up and pleaded guilty. There was a fault in the system, it was not deliberate or intentional.

“In the 23 years this company has been established this is the first complaint of this nature. It is very, very small margins compared to the overall product.”

Lanchester Dairies Ltd were fined £3,500 at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court, and ordered to pay costs of £1,660 and a victim surcharge of £350.

The company blamed new light weight packaging containers introduced in September 2015 for the shortfalls.

Mr Robinson added: “Nowadays it is usual to use thinner lighter plastic bottles which are said to be greener so more appealing to the public and PC, more politically correct.”

The dairy has cooperated fully with trading standards and is now compliant with standards.

Lanchester Dairies Ltd grew from a single dairy herd in the early 1990s to a giant milk processing plant which now works with 150 farmers, supplying milk to 400 different outlets.