Shoppers can buy a half-tonne box of pasta from Thursday at supermarkets in Turkey, but not in the world's spaghetti capital of Italy.

Too heavy and too big for the shopping trolley, delivery is included in the price.

Italy's Barilla, the world's biggest pasta maker, and Turkey's Migros Ticaretsupermarket chain teamed up to produce the mega box of penne pasta, which sells for 999 Turkish lira ($560), for charity.

Guiness World Records have declared the cardboard box - at 1-and-a-half metres high and well over a metre wide - the biggest pasta box ever produced, Parma-based Barilla said.

The boxes will be sold at supermarkets in Istanbul, Edirne and the resort port city ofBodrum. All revenues from the sales of the massive cartons will go to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Turkey consumes 450,000 tonnes of pasta per year, and is the world's No. 5 producer. - Reuters