A mum was left horrified after finding bugs on a ready meal she bought from Aldi for her 23-month-old son.
Hannah Johnson said she returned home from the Aldi store in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, on October 9 and found the unidentified insects between two pots of Mamia organic bolognese pasta bake for toddlers aged 12 months and over.
The 31-year-old also claimed the bugs had spilled out over the rest of her shopping - much of which she had to throw away - while some of the survivors crawled across her kitchen table. She says she contacted Aldi to complain, who have since offered her a refund for her shop, and also reported the matter to Cheshire East Council.
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Hannah, who bought the 85p meals for her son Louie, told CheshireLive : "It was a massive shock. I was just in a bit of a rush, and I picked three or four of them up and put them in the trolley."
At the till, she noticed some bugs - which she described as being "small, brown" and "wasp-like" - on a steak she had picked up. She says she left it with the check-out worker. "She was mortified, but obviously we didn’t see the full extent of it as it was just one or two of these things," said Hannah.
"I got in the car, and I noticed I had some bugs on my sleeve as well. I shook them off and thought nothing of it until I started unpacking the shopping in the house. As I was unpacking these ready meals on the side, I noticed some living ones fall off and start crawling across my table. They were all over my shopping in the bag, so I had to throw loads out, deep clean the house and myself."
The mum further added: "I tried to ring the store because my main concern was that it was a baby product, and if you are rushing you don’t notice things, especially if you’ve got your little one with you.
"I was worried that someone might not notice, like I hadn’t at first, and God forbid that a child eats it. That call went through to their main customer service line. The person I spoke to was lovely, very apologetic and friendly, but that was the resolution, a five-pound voucher."
On Tuesday, Aldi offered Hannah £40 in vouchers to cover the cost of her shopping.
An Aldi spokesperson said: "Although very rare, incidents like this can occasionally occur if packaging is damaged at any point before the product is consumed. We have apologised to Ms Johnson for her experience and have offered her a full refund."
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said: "We can confirm that we have received a complaint from a member of the public and we have visited the store in question and spoken with the customer. We are investigating in conjunction with the primary authority for the store and, therefore, cannot make any further comment."
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