The in-store misting machines installed in around 300 branches of Morrisons are to be axed.

Store managers have been told the machines have to be dismantled in the coming weeks, The Independent reported.

They were an innovation spearheaded by recently-ousted CEO Dalton Philips.

Will the mist be missed? By some, certainly, as the contraptions split opinion among retail insiders and consumers - some who viewed them as pioneering, others who saw them as superfluous.

Philips championed the devices when he arrived in 2010, claiming they would help to improve the quality of Morrison's fresh food.

At the time, he denied criticism that the machines were an attempt to move upmarket, claiming they would become a common sight in supermarket fresh produce aisles.