Disgusted shoppers blast limited- edition tomato sauce ICE CREAM

NEW Zealand food brand has divided fans after announcing that it will be launching a tomato sauce flavoured ice cream.

Wattie’s, which produces pantry staples such as ketchup and baked beans, has teamed up with Tip Top Ice Cream and announced the launch of the adventurous new product on Facebook earlier this week.

The choc ice style treat will contain a French vanilla flavoured ice cream with a tomato sauce ripple throughout, coated in a layer of dark chocolate.

Captioning a photo of the new snack, Wattie’s wrote: “It’s happening! We’ve teamed up with Tip Top Ice Cream to create this wonderful limited edition ice cream. Anyone keen to try it when it’s ready?”

The post quickly went viral amassing almost 5,000 likes and over 33,000 comments from horrified customers who branded the snack an “abomination.”

Commenting on the post one wrote one wrote “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” with another adding “I'm calling the police!”

Others questioned whether the announcement was a joke with one baffled Facebook user writing: “It’s not April 1st Wattie’s....go home, you’re drunk”

However, while the feedback was mainly negative a select few admitted that they would actually be keen to try the concoction.

“I think this would actually be ok!!!!” said one “I like vanilla ice cream with sweet chilli sauce.... so… same, same but different!!”

Agreeing a second added: “I’d try it. Ice cream, good! Tomato sauce, good!”

Hosts of the New Zealand breakfast show Seven Sharp taste tested the bizarre combination live on air the same day.

Jeremy Wells, who tucked into a helping of vanilla ice cream with ketchup, said: “It's not bad it's quite spicy. It sort of adds a spice to it.”

But fellow host Hilary Barry was less convinced, adding: “The interesting thing about that is that the sauce tastes very sweet, it's sweet on sweet. You forget how much sugar is in tomato sauce.”