Dear Walkers,

I have just noticed something unusual. I was eating a packet of Walkers Square Potato Snacks (enclosed) and thoroughly enjoying the experience. Very tasty, well done.

Anyhow, I was bored and inspecting the rear of the packet. I noticed something I have never noticed before. On the right hand side, just under the ingredients list and ‘Suitable for vegetarians’ message, is a sequence of numbers directly underneath a series of vertical lines of varying thicknesses. It says 5 000328 216423 >. I can’t write the lines down, I’m afraid.

I have tried and tried, but I cannot work out what you are trying to tell me. It can’t be ingredients or nutritional information, because that’s written elsewhere. Please tell me what the code means. Am I missing something really obvious? Is it Sanskrit? Or for blind people maybe?

Yours, confused,

Chad Bradley.

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Dear Mr Bradley,

Thank you for your recent letter regarding your recent purchase of a packet of Walkers Squares. We take every care and pride ourselves in ensuring our products reach our customers in perfect condition and we are always delighted to hear from people, like yourself, who really appreciate this.

The sequence of number and vertical lines that you are referring to in your letter is actually a bar code. The store can scan this code and their system will advise what product and price it is. We trust you will continue to enjoy Walkers products for many more years. Once again thank you for taking the time and trouble to write to us, it is very much appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Kelly Bisla (Mrs)

CONSUMER CARE ADVISOR