Subway: 'Footlong' just a name, not a size

• Tweet

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. restaurant chain Subway said this week its Footlong brand is the name of a sandwich line, not a guarantee each sandwich is a foot long.

The chain said on its Australian Facebook page there is no guarantee each footlong sub would measure 12 inches.

"Subway Footlong is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length," the statement said.

ABC News said a tempest started brewing when an Australian teenager went online to state he had measured a sandwich he had purchased at Subway and found it to be 11 inches in length.

The revelation led the New York Post to confirm not-quite foot-longs were being sold in the Big Apple.

Subway told ABC it strives for a 12-inch bun but the vagaries of commercial baking make it difficult to guarantee the results 100 percent of the time.