A horrified mum claims her Lidl eggs were so rotten they infested her shopping bags and fridge with 'hundreds of writhing maggots' - forcing her to throw away her entire food shop. Alice Evans bought a box of six free-range eggs from the Lidl branch in Farleigh Hill, Maidstone, Kent, on Sunday 31 July, which she planned to feed to her two-year-old daughter.
But after getting home and unpacking the shopping, the 25-year-old was hit with a stench similar to 'rotting fish' coming from her fridge. Despite being well within date with almost two weeks until the use-by guideline, she says one of the eggs had cracked open to reveal rotted black contents covered in maggots.
The stay-at-home mum has shared horrifying footage showing countless larvae squirming around in the black, rotten remains of the egg and the surrounding box. After complaining to the branch manager, Alice claims she was offered a mere £12 refund towards the £60 food haul she was forced to throw away out of fear it was contaminated.
Lidl said they were sorry their 'high standards were not met on this occasion' and confirmed they had given the customer a replacement item and further gesture of goodwill. Alice, from Maidstone, Kent, said: "My partner had unpacked the shopping and just put it away.
"I opened my fridge and could smell something funny so I emptied it out completely and cleaned it because I thought it might have been the fridge smelling. The only way I can explain [the smell] really is like rotting fish.
"As I went to pack it all away I opened the eggs to put them in the egg compartment in the fridge and I just saw these maggots crawling everywhere. I was just completely horrified. It was absolutely disgusting. It's a health hazard.
"Then looking back in the shopping bag there were maggots in the bottom of there as well. So I've then had to chuck away all my food that was in that shopping bag because I'm not having that anywhere near my food especially when I've got two young children.
"If it was just a bit of mould I wouldn't have been that bothered but it was literally hundreds of maggots as you can see from the video, it wasn't just a couple. I'm not even the one that eats eggs, I don't like eggs, they were for my daughter.
"Say it was inside the egg and the shell hadn't cracked and I'd cooked this egg and given it to my daughter - I dread to think what could have happened. That would have been awful." The mum of two claims she was forced to throw away her entire £60 food shop after finding maggots in the bottom of the food bag, leaving her worried the other produce had been contaminated with maggots as well.
She returned to her local Lidl store the following day, Monday 1 August, to complain with the rotten eggs, which still had almost two weeks until their labelled use by date of 13 August. After rejecting the manager's initial offer of a free replacement box of eggs, she claims she was given a £12 refund towards her shop.
But the chain refused to refund her entire shop without 'proof' of there being maggots in the food bag. She then complained via customer services but says this met a dead end as they asked for a photo of the barcode on the egg box, which she no longer had after handing it into the store.
Alice said: "The manager said 'it could happen in any shop really, it's one of those things. You can get a fly in the produce and it can produce maggots'. He apologised for it and offered me another free box of eggs. I didn't take it, I said no I wasn't very happy with that.
"He ended up going off and calling his area manager and customer services and they said they needed proof of all my other food having maggots near it. I said 'I don't have any proof I chucked it all out, I'm not going to keep that'. Then he offered to give me my money back for a couple of my fridge items - I think I got about £12 back.
"I personally don't think they handled it very well. They definitely need to get things like that under control because it is a serious health issue. I don't know if they check their eggs before they put them out in the shop but it doesn't look like they do.
"That should be something they are doing - checking the eggs when they are putting them on the shelves - check there's no maggots in there definitely." The mum now vows to thoroughly check any eggs before feeding them to her young daughter and encourages other customers to do the same after her grisly find.
She is calling for the supermarket to do more to prevent 'health hazards' like this happening again. Alice said: "People say check your eggs before you buy them to make sure none of them are cracked but as we don't eat that many eggs in my house it wouldn't bother me that much if one was cracked so I never checked them.
"But you wouldn't ever expect to come home and find that so I definitely will be checking my eggs from now on. It's made me more conscious about giving them to my daughter and if I do I'll be checking them and double checking them when I crack them and smelling them.
"It's put me off shopping at Lidl, I won't be going back there. I'd definitely say be more mindful when buying your food and check your eggs when you're picking them up off the shelf."
A spokesperson for Lidl said: "We were very sorry to hear of this matter, as it is never our intention for a customer to be dissatisfied in any way. We work very closely with our suppliers to ensure that the products we offer are of the highest possible quality for our customers.
"We were therefore disappointed that our expected high standards were not met on this occasion. We can confirm that upon returning to store the customer was given a replacement item, along with a further gesture of goodwill for any inconvenience caused."
