London, May 27 (IANS) A British woman has been sacked for eating a piece of nut while working on the production line of a bakery.

Susan Longworth, 54, of Lancashire, was putting chopped hazelnut on toffee cakes at the Park Cakes bakery where she has worked for 17 years, Daily Mail reported Thursday.

Longworth popped a piece of hazelnut into her mouth as she was waiting for the next batch of cakes to come in.

Her boss spotted it and within minutes she was suspended and escorted out of the premises.

‘He said he was taking into consideration my honesty and the length of time I had been working there and I thought he was going to give me a warning. I could not believe it when he said he was sacking me,’ Longworth was quoted as saying.

A Park Cakes spokesperson said: ‘Park Cakes Bakeries takes issues of hygiene very seriously indeed and has very strict rules about eating or chewing on the production line. To do so is an act of gross misconduct and, as such, warrants dismissal.’