Subway foot-long sandwiches one inch short; Facebook fans angry

The belief that Subway foot-long sandwiches are a hearty 12 inches long has been accepted as one of the great truths of the universe, alongside the rotundness of the earth and the unavoidable nature of death.

Unfortunately, Australian Subway customer Matt Corby decided to upset the grand order of things this past Tuesday, when he posted a photo of his footlong sub alongside a tape measure on Subway’s Facebook page. The sandwich is clearly only 11 inches long.

Oh, the scandal!

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That page has reportedly been taken down, but not before 131,000 people “liked” it. Apparently “missing inch” rage has been brewing among Subway lovers for some time, because the internet was instantly awash with photos of footlongs falling short of the 12-inch mark.

The New York Post even launched an investigation and found that four out of seven “Five-dollar Footlongs” purchased at Manhattan Subway restaurants measured only 11 or 11.5 inches.

According to a statement from Subway issued to ABCNews.com, “We are committed to providing a consistent product delivering the same amount of bread to the customer with every order. The length however may vary slightly when not baked to our exact specifications. We are reinforcing our policies and procedures in an effort to ensure our offerings are always consistent no matter which Subway restaurant you visit.”

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Whatever the reason for the missing inch, the Twitterverse is certainly having a field day mocking the discrepancy.

“Length DOES matter,” tweets Bon Appetit magazine, while New York Magazine tweets “Subway may be exaggerating the size of its, you know…Footlong.” Some are using the story to simply insult the sandwich chain, like DJ BLeeK Swinney, who tweets “That's funny. My Subway sandwich sure tastes like a foot.”

Whether angry Subway customers will take their wrath further than snarky online remarks remains to be seen.

Watch the video below where Fabio shows us how to make the ultimate Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.