A shopper who asked Sainsbury's to include half a dozen fresh eggs in her online delivery was surprised when the shopping arrived with the eggs missing - and two egg custard tarts substituted instead. The shopper made her order through Uber Eats, but appears to have fallen victim to the UK egg shortage which has seen some shops ration this staple.
She told the Mirror: “I usually have scrambled eggs in the morning and was running low on supplies so I ordered some with a few other bits. I didn't receive any notifications to let me know they were out of stock so was bemused when I saw the egg custard tarts and twigged it was a substitute when I realised the eggs were missing.”
“I burst out laughing as I have hated custard since school dinner days. Thank God I didn't need the eggs for something important.
“I have contacted Uber Eats but they haven't responded yet."
The Mirror contacted Sainsbury's and Uber Eats for comment. After sharing her experience on Twitter, users took to the platform to mock the choice of substitutes.
One said: “Sainsbury’s once replaced a packet of biscuits with chewing gum and freezer bags with cat food (I don’t even own a cat)”
Another added: “I ordered veggie sausages and they were replaced with pork sausages.” One person suggested that the women should have received six egg custard tarts to make up for the missing six pack of eggs.
“They didn’t even try to get close to the same type of item”, said one user. While another said: “On what planet would this ever be a great substitute for eggs?”
But the news wasn’t met with criticism alone - as some people said they would be happy to receive the custard tarts as an alternative.
One user said: "Whoo! I love me some egg custard pie." While another added: "At least you got dessert."
According to official figures, the price of a box of a dozen eggs has gone up by more than 22%. Last year, the UK produced 11.3 billion eggs - and imported another 1.4 billion to meet demand.
Supplies are now under threat as farmers are fighting to tackle soaring costs alongside an outbreak of bird flu. It means top supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Aldi, are having to warn customers of supply issues.
Asda and Lidl have resorted to rationing how many eggs each customer can take home.
Asda is only letting customers buy two boxes of eggs each, while one Lidl branch is allowing three egg boxes per customer.
