# Mystery "e"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-e/325837>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 12, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-e/325837 "2005-10-12T02:19:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hyakmooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@Hyakmooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyakmooks)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-e/325837/1 "2005-10-12T02:19:59Z")

</div>

On most cosmetics bottles, there’s a little “e” next to the weight or volume. Is this some kind of logo for Euro weight standards or something? It’s been driving me bananas for years, since there’s no easy way to google “e”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-e/325837/2 "2005-10-12T02:41:58Z")

</div>

More than you ever wanted to know about the “e symbol”:

> [@](#):
>
> ## 3.8 What does the “e” symbol found on many packaged goods mean?
> 
> Prepackaged supermarket goods bought in Europe show, next to the  
> weight or volume indication, a symbol that looks like a slightly large  
> and bold lowercase letter “e”. With this symbol, the manufacturer  
> guarantees that the tolerance of the indicated weight or volume meets  
> the requirements of European Union legislation, namely:
> 
> Council Directive 75/106/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the  
> Member States relating to the making-up by volume of certain  
> prepackaged liquids, 1974-12-19, (Official Journal L 324, 1975-12-16).  
> [http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1975/en\_1975L0106\_do\_001.pdf](http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1975/en_1975L0106_do_001.pdf)
> 
> Council Directive 76/211/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the  
> Member States relating to the making-up by weight or by volume  
> of certain prepackaged products, 1976-01-20, (Official Journal L 046,  
> 1976-02-21, p. 1)  
> [http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1976/en\_1976L0211\_do\_001.pdf](http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1976/en_1976L0211_do_001.pdf)
> 
> These EU regulations define the maximally allowed negative error of  
> the packaged content in relation to the label, as well as statistical  
> tests that manufactured packages must be able to pass.
> 
> The exact shape of the “e” is defined, along with various other far  
> less frequently used symbols, in:
> 
> Council Directive 71/316/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the  
> Member States relating to common provisions for both measuring  
> instruments and methods of metrological control, 1971-07-26,  
> (Official Journal L 202, 1971-09-06, p. 1).  
> [http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1971/en\_1971L0316\_do\_001.pdf](http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1971/en_1971L0316_do_001.pdf)
> 
> The Unicode and ISO 10646 character-set standards call this “e” symbol  
> the ESTIMATED SIGN and encode it at position U+212E.

From [here](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/metric-system-faq.txt).