Jamie Oliver's newest restaurant has been picketed by animal rights protesters who take issue with the chef's promotion of British pork.

Members of Peta stood outside Jamie's Italian in Brighton holding placards bearing the words "Be Pukka to Pigs: Go Vegetarian" while a heavily pregnant supporter crouched in a crate beside them.

Stooped on all-fours and clad in just a pair of flesh-coloured pants, Lynzi Waddington said she wanted to highlight the "cruelty that goes on behind closed doors" within the pig farming industry.

Poorva Joshipura, director of special projects for Peta, said: "If Jamie truly loved pigs then he would be joining us in asking people to go vegetarian."

But Jamie's spokesman said the protesters should target other restaurants as the celebrity chef had long "championed the welfare of pigs" but would not be taking meat off his menus.

"If they want people to go vegetarian then they're protesting in the wrong place," he said. "The meat Jamie is serving up is very high quality.

"They should go make a protest somewhere that imports its meat."

Jamie's most recent television show was a documentary investigating pig welfare standards, which urged people to buy British pork rather than that produced abroad under poorer conditions.

In Channel 4's Jamie Saves Our Bacon, the chef highlighted factory pig farm conditions in continental Europe, showing the use of sow stalls, where pregnant pigs are kept in cages for up to four months at a time without room to turn.