A woman has spoken of her horror after tucking into her festive lunch.
Maria Brand had decided to buy herself a Tesco Meal Deal earlier this week from the King Street express store in Wallasey, which she could enjoy on her lunch break in between jobs as a teacher. But after looking forward to tucking into her Turkey and Trimmings sandwich, she said she was "not expecting" what she found.
Pulling over in New Brighton, the Merseyside mum was soon "repulsed" when she felt something "hard" in her mouth. Upon further inspection she found what looked like a piece of wood, ruining future meal deals for her.
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She told the ECHO the meal deal was "a bit of a treat" for her short lunch break on Wednesday and was her first seasonal sandwich of the festive season. She said: "I was honestly repulsed when I took the penultimate bite of the first half."
Maria added: "I pulled into the prom to eat quick and was looking at the lovely scenery until my last bite. I thought it was bone but when I took it out of my mouth I saw what can only be described as wood.
"It's put me off, I didn't finish the rest. I think I'm going to stay away from boxed sandwiches for a while. I don't often get meal deals, I usually take my own lunch but if I do I go Tesco or if I'm feeling lush go to M&S.
"I'm really disappointed, it's totally put me off and taught me to always pack my own lunch. I posted on Twitter because my wonder was has anyone else found anything interesting in their meal deal. But check before you eat. It's knocked me sick and I kept thinking about it all afternoon."
Maria said her aim was to not to "shame a company", but to find out if this has happened to anyone else and wondered "what other trimmings Tesco might be considering for their festive sandwiches".
Posting on social media she wrote: "Not the trimmings I was expecting and wood isn’t listed as ingredients…meal deals ruined forever thanks @Tesco think this is a piece of wood? Yes I I did have this in my mouth."
Tesco replied to Maria and said: "Hi Maria. I'm really sorry to hear this, please take this with the packaging back to one of our stores and we'll certainly get this investigated for you. TY-Scott"
A Tesco spokesperson said: "We are sorry that Ms Brand found this in her sandwich. If she takes it back to one of our stores, we will investigate and she can get a full refund."
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