Tony Gibson had wanted to sell his all-natural pork sausages, made from a 120-year-old recipe, from his shop in Ramshill Road, but feared food regulations would force him to change their name.

The problem was that the recipe used breadcrumbs instead of rusk, which is now used by most manufacturers to ensure the sausage doesn't contain too much water. Because breadcrumbs absorb water at different rates depending on how dry the bread is or how long it is cooked, it was impossible to say how much bread and water the product contained – especially as it was hand-mixed.

Until recently a pork sausage had to contain a minimum of 65 per cent pork – even if most of it was mechanically-recovered gristle.

Mr Gibson said he had had the recipe for a while, and he and friends liked it so much he wanted to sell the result.

He said his sausages used only the best locally-produced pork, fresh homemade breadcrumbs and a special blend of herbs and spices, but if he couldn't satisfy the labelling regulations he couldn't sell them as sausages – meaning he would have to call them something else.

"We thought 'banger', but we didn't want to call it that because we found that they got that name during the Second World War when sausages were so high in fat and water they exploded," he said.

Despite being relatively high in fat Mr Gibson insisted his sausages did not explode.

"It's such an old-fashioned recipe that the measurements and weights are totally different. It's also rare breed, high-welfare pork. Rare breeds mature slowly and more often than not live outside.

"They develop stronger muscles and it gives the pork a higher fat content – especially saddle-back, which gives just the right taste and texture for sausages."

Mr Gibson, who has been a butcher all his life, said it was ironic that regulations introduced to protect the consumer from low-quality, highly-processed food full of added fat and artificial ingredients should be used against the most natural products.

"I think that's why the Food Standards Agency wanted to support me," he said.

"There's been a big debate about fat content, but it's not added fat in my sausages. The laws now state you can declare less than 65 per cent pork in the product, but you must declare what kind of pork it is."

He said it was thanks to the persistence of North Yorkshire trading standards officers that he became aware of the change in the legislation, which is designed to encourage the use of healthier cuts of meat while recognising that natural products do vary.