David Exwood called on the government to take the food shortages “seriously” after the environment secretary raised eyebrows with her comments.

The cabinet minister told MPs on Thursday it is important to “cherish the specialisms” that we have in this country.

“A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar,” she added.

Exwood said: “We can’t rely on other countries to keep feeding us. So we need a plan that involves producing at home here as well as imports.

“Otherwise the situation we see will carry on. We had a billion less eggs produced in this country last year compared to 2019.

“Apple orchards are being grubbed up as we speak. This is a serious situation.

“We need the government to take it seriously rather than make flippant comments about turnips.”

Some supermarkets introduced customer limits on certain fresh produce, with photographs emerging of empty shelves.