The M25 was brought to a standstill on Tuesday by a “spillage of watermelons” that are thought to have tumbled from a vehicle.
Traffic was held clockwise near junction 31 at Purfleet Interchange, following the incident around 9.30am.
National Highways announced the incident on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and warned drivers of “long delays”.
A road sweeper was sent to clear the spillage and one lane was reopened, but motorists faced queues of more than 30 minutes.
Photos from the scene showed highways workers armed with brushes sweeping the fruit from the motorway, which is one of the busiest in the UK.
All lanes of the main carriageway had reopened by around 11am.
By around 12.20pm, about three hours after the incident was reported, the entry slip road had also fully reopened.