There's a fresh call for tobacco to be taken out of dairies after three Auckland shops sold cigarettes to minors in a single afternoon.

A sting operation run by Auckland Regional Public Health Service caught them out using teenaged volunteers.

Each shop has been fined $500.

The Public Health Service's Dean Adam says the most common excuse was that the buyers looked old enough.

He says while staff at bottle stores are trained to ask for ID it's not always the case in dairies.

"They pretty much ask everybody for I.D.

"It's ingrained in their business practice.

"Tobacco can be sold anywhere in New Zealand and probably not all of the premises have good habits."