A Scots woman has been left horrified after finding a large piece of metal in a chicken breast she received in a Hello Fresh box.
Karen Watson, from Skelmorlie, was unpacking the box of meals on Monday evening when she heard a bang as she placed the chicken on her counter.
The 33-year-old school nurse first thought there might have been a bone within the meat but was soon astounded upon further inspection.
A square piece of metal over six centimetres long was embedded within the chicken breast as pieces of rust were also covering the meat.
Karen told the Record: "I was unpacking my box and matching the ingredients to the recipe card.
"As I took the chicken out and put it on the counter I heard a large thud. I thought it might have been a bone but I looked and it was a piece of metal.
"I phoned them straight away and I got through to customer service who said they would pass it to the food safety team.
"I said to them about recalling the product as I don't know how that has been missed. There were bits of rust floating about in it as well.
"The next day I got a call from the food standards team but it felt like they were reading off a script."
Despite raising concerns that the metal could have also contaminated other batches on the same production line, Karen says her safety fears fell on deaf ears.
She was offered a partial refund of £17 after discovering the dangerous object, but after complaining further and cancelling her account she was eventually given a full refund.
Disgusted by the incident, Karen has kept the vacuum packed chicken in case it is required for Food Standards Agency testing.
She added: "This level of negligence is abhorrent and could leave people at risk of metal poisoning."
Hello Fresh boxes are meals delivered to your home that include a number of recipe cards and bags of ingredients.
Prices differ depending on the box with a kit for two people with three meals being £26.99 and a kit for four people with five recipes costing £64.99.
A spokesperson for Hello Fresh said: “We are aware of this incident and have apologised directly and provided a full refund and a gesture of goodwill to the customer.
"The safety of our ingredients is our number one priority, and as soon as we learned of this incident, our customer service team acted swiftly to refund the customer and urgently raised this issue with the supplier.
"The supplier has since reassured us that they have identified the cause and addressed it to prevent recurrence.”
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