SHORTLY before Christmas I purchased from Tesco, Askham Bar, a frozen turkey. Weight 4.2kg, the cooking instructions printed on the wrapping stated two hours exactly.

Having planned my Christmas dinner for 6pm the bird was put into the oven at the recommended heat setting at 3.30pm.

Two hours later the bird was only half cooked and required another one and a half hours to be properly cooked, causing dinner to be delayed that length of time, bringing stress and trauma to what should have been a peaceful Christmas Day.

Now some may say that I should have known that a bird of this size required more than two hours in the oven. But being a mere male who doesn't cook turkeys every week, and who was brought up using imperial weight measurements, I trusted in the packaging instructions.

In due course I complained to the store manager. He did offer a full refund of the purchase price, but I felt that this was not due recompense for the inconvenience caused.

I wrote to York Trading Standards and received a puzzling reply. Evidently products of this type must be annotated with the weight and recommended cooking time, but the legislation does not state that the cooking time be accurate. How strange!

I now intend to write to York MP Hugh Bayley asking him to raise this point with the trade and industry ministry. In the meantime if you purchase such a product from Tesco, do not take for granted that the information given on the packaging is correct.

L Hargrave,

Ramsey Avenue,

Bishopthorpe, York.

Updated: 11:20 Wednesday, February 02, 2005