Talk:Federal Specification for Candy and Chocolate Confections

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Usually these things have citations or abbreviations (EG. the MIL-SPEC series). I can't find anything that suggests this is a real thing. 76.117.247.55 (talk) 22:20, 6 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Right on; this should absolutely have a formal citation. I'd like to smack whoever first wrote up this page for not bothering to pull the ref numbers off the Milan microfilm. Erm — anyway. I can't easily find any copies of the spec online — most pages link to here, which is disconcertingly circular — but I did manage to pull a pair of reported cases that include reference to the spec; I've included them in the References section. They're from the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, basically the administrative agency that deals with contract disputes between independent contractors and the DoD. I don't think the case text is publicly accessible, but I've included a full citation, in case anyone wants to try and troll a bit deeper into the bowels of administrative records. (It's available in plaintext on Westlaw, but that's not exactly public access.)
 * Basically, the F&F Laboratories cases (original hearing and appeal) deal with the Specification. Long story short, F&F bid on a candy bar supply contract with a product that didn't fit within the size limits defined within para 3.5.1 of the Specification (Type II starch jelly candies). Shenanigans ensued, and the appeals board held that the government was effectively estopped from rejecting the shipment because they didn't bring up the issue until halfway through the production run.
 * So, it's a case pretty much exactly on point. It's dated 1988, though, so none of the case record is online — record that would naturally include the relevant excerpts from the Spec. At least the case gives us an exact Specification number (Z-C-2104). And, of course, it confirms that the specification exists and is not a hoax, which I think is the most important thing here.
 * Given the confirmation of the Specification's existence, I'm going to go ahead and take off the hoax tag. I realize that the source isn't easily available, and I'm happy to pull more information if anyone has more specific questions on either F&F Laboratories or whatever else I can pull. (Drop a line on my talk page or something so I actually notice it, though.) Ourai  тʃс 17:40, 7 July 2014 (UTC)