“Appetising food smells have increased but others are less attractive, such as stale food and beer, damp, sweat and body odour, drains and -- how do you put this nicely -- flatulence," said Oliver Devine of Mitchells and Butlers, one of the countries' largest pub chains.

Since the smoking ban started in Scotland twelve months ago, the chain has experimented with introducing a scent into their pubs intended to smell like the sea.

“We are considering trialling the smell of leather, which suggests luxury and indulgence, and cut grass, which is clean and domestic,” Devine said.

The proposals are a slap in the face to advocates of the smoking ban who claimed that pubs would be more pleasant environments after cigarettes were banished from them.

Other establishments have also been implementing systems that pump perfume into the atmosphere.

Rentokil Initial -- already responsible for the automated systems that spray perfume into pub toilets -- have been commissioned by the Marriott chain of hotels to make their bars smell nicer.

Luminar, the operator of over 100 nightclubs in the UK, have already begun wafting pleasant odours over the dancefloors in their outlets.