Britain's best-selling e-cigarette company Elf Bar has "unintentionally" broken the law by admitting it sold products with nicotine levels above the legal limit of 50 per cent.

A MailOnline investigation has found that the Chinese vaping giant's 600 series e-cigarettes exceeded the legal limit for nicotine e-liquids.

Elf Bar has "apologised wholeheartedly" after independent lab tests carried out by the Post found the company to be breaking the law.

In the UK, the amount of nicotine liquid in e-cigarettes is legally limited to 2ml, of which the maximum nicotine strength should be 2%. Trading Standards warn that this strict 2ml limit must not be exceeded without exception.

But the Post-Mail commissioned tests of three flavors of Elf Bar 600 bought at Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrisons branches in London, Derby and Sheffield and found they contained between 3ml and 3.2ml of nicotine level. Two other major e-cigarette brands tested at the same time were found to have legal levels.

Tesco pulled some Elf Bar 600s from its stores after the Daily Mail shared the findings, while Morrison launched an investigation into the product.

A Morrisons spokesman said: "We take this matter very seriously and can confirm we are working closely with Elf Bar and Trading Standards to investigate this matter further.

Tesco said in a statement: "As a precautionary measure, we have temporarily stopped the sale of a line of ELF BAR vaping products while the manufacturer urgently investigates these claims.

The article alerts the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to these findings. Elf Bar was initially skeptical about Mail's testing process and suggested the products might be fakes.

But a spokesperson later confirmed: "We have found that some batches of Elf Bar products have been overfilled in the UK. Standard e-juice can sizes from other markets (e.g. the US) appear to have been inadvertently fitted to some of our UK products. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

It insists the very regrettable situation does not jeopardize the safety of the product, and it will alert retailers and review its production process.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "Local enforcement agencies are responsible for enforcing these regulations and taking action against non-compliant products, including those that do not comply with the 2ml limit.

Elf Bar sells 2.5 million disposable e-cigarettes a week in the UK and they are used by tens of thousands of children thanks to their bright packaging and sweet flavors including cola and cotton candy ice.

Experts described the findings as deeply disturbing and warned of the risks of illicit e-cigarette use among young people.

Anti-smoking group Ash found last year that more than half of 11- to 17-year-olds, the roughly 100,000 who admitted to having tried vaping, said they used an Elf Bar.

Mark Oates, director of consumer advocacy group We Vape, told the Daily Mail the findings were deeply concerning and that anyone supplying e-cigarettes in the UK market should comply with the legislation.

He added: "It's very frustrating when major players in this industry appear to be acting in a way that damages the reputation of something as beneficial as vaping, and we want the MHRA to investigate fully into this matter.

Meanwhile, Andrew Bush, professor of paediatrics at Imperial College London, told MailOnline the findings were absolutely shocking, saying: "It's incredibly worrying. The scary part is people don't know what they are taking. Urgent action is needed on these e-cigarettes.

E-cigarette manufacturers must register details of new products with the MHRA before they can be sold in the UK. But this is a self-certification and the MHRA will not conduct any testing on the product during this registration.

Dan Marchant, managing director of The Vape Club, the UK's largest e-cigarette retailer, said stricter restrictions were needed on underage children buying the products.

He said: "The flippant answer is to stop selling them to children. Adopts a challenge 25 policy and is very strict. While we know this isn't an issue for most convenience retailers, statistics do show that the majority of underage sales happen on the high street.

“Indeed, we need more help and engagement from the government to help keep these products from falling into the hands of children, but still preserve the enormous public health benefits they provide. We also need to reduce fines for the sale of vaping products to minors From a maximum of £2,500 to a minimum of £10,000."

"There needs to be a real deterrent to encourage less cautious retailers not to risk selling to children."

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