Ahead of Britain leaving the European Union, ministers are coming under pressure to allow shops to sell meat, fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces, reports the Telegraph.
Customers have been asking shop owners if they can have groceries weighed in pounds and ounces rather than grams and kilograms ahead of Brexit.
The British Weights and Measures Association said that “one or two” shops had been in contact every week since the June 23 referendum asking if they can sell produce in imperial measurements.
It said that this figure was likely “the tip of a much bigger iceberg”.
The law only permits the sale of foods and goods in kilograms and grams, but retailers are free to display imperial units alongside as a conversion.
This “supplementary indication” - which cannot be in writing bigger than the metric price - is not allowed to form part of the transaction process.
The requirement to display in metric should end when Britain repeals the European Communities Act 1972 and formally leaves the European Union.
Campaigners known as "metric martyrs" fought long legal battles for the right to sell meat, fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces.
A number were convicted for having weighing scales that had only imperial measurements.
Warwick Cairns, a spokesman for the association, said: "In 2000, to comply with European legislation, the Government made it a criminal act for a greengrocer to sell a pound of bananas.
"We thought this was outrageous then. We think it outrageous now. And with our exit from the EU, the legal basis of compulsory metrication will be repealed. We believe it's now time to restore freedom of choice."
