North Yorkshire shoppers have been warned not to get so wrapped up in their buying they end up with foil that doesn't measure up to that heavy duty Christmas cooking.

After a complaint from a disappointed consumer, local trading standards officers have been checking rolls of foil.

And they have found large differences in the way they are sold.

Stuart Pudney, head of trading standards, said: "Whilst there is no legal requirement to state the length of foil on the outer box, most manufacturers do give a clear indication of what is contained inside.

"However, some packers do not mark the boxes and in some instances rolls of foil have been to be as short as just one-and-a-quarter metres, which is hardly enough to cover a family-size turkey. We would just advise customers to take care when buying - what looks like a bargain at 79p a pack may not be such good value when it works out at 64p a metre, nearly four times the price of other brands," Mr Pudney added.