An advert for Tesco‘s British iceberg lettuce is misleading and must not be used again, according to a UK advertising watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a claim made in an advert that appeared in the national press in June misled consumers.

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The ad said Tesco British Iceberg lettuce “goes from farm to store within 24 hours. So, one day it’s in the field. The next it’s in your salad”.

Tesco defended the claim, saying the lettuce was delivered from the farm to the store within 24 hours, except in unforeseen circumstances, as stated in the small print on the ad.

It acknowledged that due to the time taken to pick an entire field of lettuces, not all lettuces within the batch would be delivered to store within 24 hours of being picked from the field. However, it did not believe that the time at which the lettuces were picked from the field was relevant to the claims made in the ad.

However, the ASA upheld a complaint made by rival retailer Sainsbury’s. The watchdog said: “In the overall context of the ad, we considered that consumers were likely to interpret the ad to mean that the product was available for purchase in store within 24 hours of having been picked from the field. Since we understood that that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”

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A Tesco spokesperson said the retailer was “disappointed” but accepted the decision. “We know that our customers value freshness and our intention merely was to highlight the fact that our lettuces do indeed go from farm to store within 24 hours,” the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson from Sainsbury’s said they agreed with the ASA’s decision and refused to comment any further.

The ASA also told Tesco to ensure that claims were not likely to mislead in future.