A dad has vowed to boycott Morrisons after his daughter found a snail in her mouth as they ate Sunday dinner. Miles Howells was enjoying a Sunday roast with his family when his seven-year-old child froze while eating her peas. She then pulled a snail out of her mouth.
He said: "She could have swallowed it. She sees them in the garden, she knows they're not meant to be eaten, so she got a bit upset, asking if it could have poisoned her. I explained that wouldn't have happened, but it freaked her out."
Miles, from Swansea, bought the peas from the Llanelli branch of Morrisons in Carmarthenshire. The dad-of-one has vowed to never shop at the supermarket chain again.
He said: "We just couldn't believe our eyes. It stopped us all in our tracks. I was disgusted. It's a garden animal, it was so off-putting. I understand there's places where snails are eaten as a delicacy and that's fine, but you don't expect a snail to end up in your daughter's mouth from a bag of peas.
"The worst case scenario flashed through my head without a doubt. She could have choked on it. It doesn't bear thinking about it. She won't touch peas now. She's been put off them."
Miles complained via social media, but branded the supermarket's response as "awful". He said: "They got me to send through a picture of the bag of peas, the barcode, and all of that. They asked if we still had the receipt, we didn't. We'd only gone in to pick a handful of bits up on Friday, it wasn't a big shop.
Miles Howells was horrified when his daughter pulled a snail from her mouth (Image: Kennedy News / @miles_howells)
"Because I didn't have a receipt, they offered me a £5 gift voucher. I said I could tell them what time I went in, my car registration if they wanted to check that, what check-out I used, but they said they couldn't look into any of that without a receipt.
"I thought 'Wow, unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable'. No apology, just a message about how good their food quality control is. I don't care about that, because this snail got through all of that and ended up in my daughter's mouth.
"I was just looking for an apology. I'm not one of these people out to rinse them for money. I'm not going to shop at Morrisons again. My mum won't be shopping at them either - she'll be going further afield to shop elsewhere. It's just appalling."
Morrisons have since apologised to Miles and said they have offered him a gesture of goodwill. A spokesperson said: "We're sorry that this happened. We're in contact with Mr. Howells and have offered him a gesture of goodwill to apologise for any inconvenience caused."
