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Britain is facing a biscuit shortage after a factory producing some of the UK's favourite treats is struggling to rebuild after Storm Desmond .

The factory producing Britain's best loved biscuits has been affected by a halt in production after it was battered by the storms in December.

United Biscuits factory in Carlisle has so far been able to restore production of McVitie’s Gold bars - but says the rest of the factory is closed until further notice.

This means supermarkets are short of most of McVitie's , Jacob's, Carr's and Crawford's treats.

Including custard creams, shortcakes - and table water biscuits.

(Image: PA)

A United Biscuits spokesman said: "Due to floods in Carlisle we are experiencing a shortage of a number of products under the McVitie’s, Jacob’s, Carr’s and Crawford’s brands, reported the Chronicle .

"We apologise if consumers are finding it difficult to get hold of some of these products and we are working hard at our Carlisle site to resume normal service as soon as possible.

Read more:Rod Stewart donates £10,000 to Carlisle United following damage caused by Storm Desmond

"We currently have 400 United Biscuits employees, contractors and suppliers working back at our factory site and supporting with the clean-up process, and resuming factory production is an absolute priority for us.

"Our trade customers are being kept informed of the progress of all affected products."

(Image: PA)

But which biscuits are affected?

You won’t get custard creams for a while. The floods that hit Carlisle in December waterlogged the United Biscuits factory by the River Caldew.

Repairs still haven’t finished and supermarket shelves are beginning to empty of biscuits across the country.

Ginger nuts are out too, along with lots of United Biscuit’s lines. Like Crawford’s shortcake and McVitie’s custard creams. Oh, and Carr’s Table Water Biscuits.

Most biscuits are baked with fat, but water biscuits use only water. It’s a technique first used to preserve biscuits for long sea voyages in the 19th century.

(Image: Getty Images)

Until now, that is: the unique brick oven at the Carlisle works was swamped in five feet of water, and since it has no equal across the country we’re just going to have to wait until it’s fixed. So no water table biscuits, either.

You can already get McVitie’s Gold biscuit bars. They went back into production last week.

Read more:Heartless burglar jailed after heading out to loot homes of Storm Desmond flood victims

As for the rest, the factory is closed until further notice. And 400 people are working behind the scenes to get the place up and running, but United Biscuits don’t know when they’ll be ready to open the doors again.

Best guess? A couple of months.

And definitely not time to invest in biscuit insurers. The unlucky bean-counters who agreed to underwrite the biscuit factory could be in line for a £50m claim.