Box fumble puts grumble in crumble

Glen Hunter put painstaking effort into tracing when exactly Snax are broken. Michael Craig

Some people may think Glen Hunter is crackers. Who in their right mind would try to match up, jigsaw-style, all the broken pieces from a box of crackers?

But Hunter, 70, was sick of buying boxes of Snax only to open them and think: "Oh crumbs".

He wanted to determine whether the biscuits were broken before or after they went into the cellophane packet.

"I painstakingly have tried to match up the broken pieces without any success."

The exercise took an hour and a half, but the outcome, in Hunter's opinion, is conclusive.

"I say they are being broken in the factory and being packaged like that."

But that's not what the manufacturer, Griffin's, says. The company told Hunter any damage must have occured in transit.

A company statement to the Herald on Sunday said: "Griffin's prides itself on manufacturing high quality products and takes great care to ensure they reach the consumer in excellent condition.

"Griffin's does not intentionally pack broken crackers. Snax crackers are susceptible to breakage during packaging and transportation, and work is currently being carried out to reduce the incidence of breakage that consumers are experiencing."

But Hunter, who lives in Papakura, Auckland, now spreads his pate on Chinese-made crackers, which he says are seldom broken.