A mum was left stunned when she discovered a ready meal she bought for her toddler son was infested with bugs. She claimed that some of the bugs in the Aldi product were "still living".
Hannah Johnson said she returned from her shop on Sunday and made the discovery while she was unpacking. Hannah, 31, said the insects had taken hold between two pots of Mamia organic Bolognese pasta bake, which is designed for toddlers aged 12 months and over.
She claimed that the bugs had made their way into the rest of her shop and that she had to bin much of it as a result. Hannah also said the insects crawled across her kitchen table while she was unpacking.
The mum, from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, told CheshireLive that she contacted Aldi straight away to complain. The store has since offered her a refund, as well as reporting the incident to Cheshire East Council, which has confirmed it is now investigating.
Hannah, who bought the 85p meals for son Louie, said: "It was a massive shock. I was just in a bit of a rush and I picked three or four of them up and put them in the trolley."
At the till, Hannah noticed some bugs - which she described as being "small, brown" and "wasp-like" - on a steak she had picked up. She says she left it with checkout worker.
"She was mortified, but obviously we didn’t see the full extent of it as it was just one or two of these things," said Hannah. "I got in the car, and I noticed I had some bugs on my sleeve as well. I shook them off and thought nothing of it until I started unpacking the shopping in the house.
"As I was unpacking these ready meals on the side, I noticed some living ones fall off and start crawling across my table. They were all over other my shopping in the bag, so I had to throw loads out, deep clean the house and myself.
"It wasn’t a nice day. I didn’t want to eat anything after that," she added.
Hannah continued: "I tried to ring the store because my main concern was that it was a baby product and if you are rushing you don’t notice things, especially if you’ve got your little one with you. I was worried that someone might not notice, like I hadn’t at first, and God forbid that a child eats it.
"That call went through to their main customer service line. The person I spoke to was lovely, very apologetic and friendly, but that was the resolution, a £5 voucher."
However, on Tuesday (October 11), Aldi offered Hannah £40 in vouchers to cover the cost of her shopping. Hannah said she could not quite identify the insects she found in the pots.
"I’ve tried to figure it out, but I’m not sure if they’re from the UK or not," she said. "Some look like larvae, some look like woodlice, and I think it’s more than one species. Some had turned into flies. A lot of them were dead, but some were still living. It was really strange."
An Aldi spokesperson said: "Although very rare, incidents like this can occasionally occur if packaging is damaged at any point before the product is consumed. We have apologised to Ms Johnson for her experience and have offered her a full refund.”
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said: "We can confirm that we have received a complaint from a member of the public and we have visited the store in question and spoken with the customer. We are investigating in conjunction with the primary authority for the store and, therefore, cannot make any further comment."
