A mum has told Tesco shoppers to check their bolognese sauce before cooking after claiming maggots were found in two separate jars.
Rosina James, from Wareham, Dorset, wanted to make the Italian dish for her family, so popped into Tesco Extra in Poole.
She stopped off at her local branch late last month, and on Monday decided to start cooking.
But she immediately noticed something was wrong and went in for a closer look.
She told DorsetLive that she was shocked to find something very strange looking back at her and quickly uploaded photos to social media.
“I poured a small amount into a saucepan,” she said. “Then I saw something, thinking ‘what are those?’”
“I’d recently seen pictures of someone who saw maggots in their baked beans and thought it looked a bit similar, I wasn’t too sure. I left the sauce to the side and put it on Facebook asking people what it is.
“I asked Tesco on social media but they didn’t get back to me. I obviously decided not to eat it.”
One of her friends suggested picking one of the creatures out of the sauce, drying it off, and looking. She did just that and the photos made for gruesome viewing.
The tomato-stained image of several deceased maggots or, as Mrs James now thinks they are, some sort of fly larvae, was shared on social media to warn other people.
She continued: “They’re dead in the jar, but it really does put you off your food doesn’t it. I’ve asked Tesco to recall it, I don’t want compensation, I’m asking that they make sure no one’s kids eat that.
“We might already be eating this stuff but once we know it’s there let’s not feed it to people.”
Mrs James said Tesco told her that it wouldn’t issue a recall until she could get the jar back into the store, which she plans to do on Saturday.
After Mrs James posted her ordeal on Facebook, one other woman reported having the same problem.
Responding to the claims, a Tesco spokesperson said: “We were very sorry to hear this and have been in touch with the customer to apologise. The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and we are investigating this as a priority with our supplier.
"We have stringent hygiene standards in place for all of our manufacturers and will be in touch with the customer once our investigation is complete.”
A spokesperson for BCP Council said: “We are investigating a complaint from a customer of Tesco in Yarrow Road, Poole. We will check the complaint and prioritise matters which could cause significant harm to health and will action any breaches of legislation in line with our enforcement policy.”
