In the wake of the U.K.'s referendum decision to leave the European Union (EU), campaigners are urging the British government to repeal laws requiring grocers to only sell produce using the metric measurement system. 

Due to a European directive, regulations were established in Britain in 2000 that made it a criminal offence for sellers to use imperial measurements of pounds or ounces - known as English units in the U.S.

Retailers are allowed to display imperial units alongside the metric as a conversion, but this must be a 'supplementary indication' and cannot be in writing bigger than the metric price nor be used in the transaction.

The requirement to use the metric system would likely end when the U.K. repeals the European Communities Act 1972 and formally leaves the economic trading bloc.

British government ministers are reported by local media to now be coming under pressure by some retailers to end the law immediately.

Warwick Cairns, a campaigner and spokesperson for the British Weights & Measures Association (BWMA) said people had been prosecuted in the past for failing to comply with the law.

"There was a trial of a greengrocer in what's called the 'Metric Martyr' case, who was arrested for selling a customer a pound of bananas. The case went all the way to the High Court," he told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"That legal basis will have to be repealed because we’re leaving the EU. When that goes, all the other things that depend on it like measurements won’t have a legal force."

Cairns emphasized the BWMA did not want to force people to use the imperial system, but wanted to give people the freedom to choose whichever they preferred.

"Different measurements are better for different things. Metric’s really good for complex calculations with a base of 10. So if you’re doing long calculations the metric system is by far the best," he said.

"But when it comes to practical day-to-day things, imperial is actually often a lot better, because it evolved over many centuries to human proportions.

"So for example, if you pick up a handful of bananas, that tends to weigh roughly a pound. A block of something like cheese or butter, it’s easy to cut it with a knife and fairly accurately get half a pound or an ounce. The imperial system has gone on for a very long time."

Cairns also explained that while pounds and ounces were often just thought of as being used in the U.K. and U.S., many other countries have or have had similarly proportioned systems.

"The Japanese have got a measurement for a foot that's almost the same length as the English version. The French, Germans and the Greeks used to have to one, and the Chinese have a version of a pound," he said.

"They're just practical measurements that fit with human beings. That's why lots of people prefer to use them."

A government spokesperson recently told local media that as the metric system was used by international trade, it was important for the U.K. to use it too to ensure the country remained open for business and continued to grow.

But Cairns said there was no logic to these claims, explaining that the world's largest economy - the U.S. - didn't seem to have issues by using the imperial system.

"If people who think the metric system is great believe that, then allow people freedom of choice to use that," he said.

"It doesn’t seem to be what’s happening in the U.S. - people have choice there and they all tend to use pounds and inches. If it’s better people will use it."

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