A SHOPPER claims she was greeted by an unwelcome visitor moments before tucking into her Tesco meal deal.
The customer, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought the salad meal from Tesco Petrol Station in Greenstead Road, Hythe, at around 9am on June 2.
It was left until 11am before she sat down for her lunch, when she noticed something moving around.
She said: “It was pretty disgusting to see that honestly, I thought it was a leaf turning over at first but when I found out what it was I thought ‘Oh my God, this is very disgusting and strange'.
“My friends thought it was a little funny but I was unamused.
“I got some sort of gift card worth £5.50 as compensation from customer service, I wasn’t expecting millions but that’s not the point.”
The shopper adds customer services told her that this could have happened because of her meal’s ingredients.
When preparing the salad meal, manufacturers did not use very ‘strong’ pesticides which potentially created an environment for an insect to settle in.
The customer added: “The point is this is very unhygienic, what if I didn’t see the insect?
“That’s why I thought it was important to report it, I actually haven’t hadn’t my lunch because I’m not very comfortable buying and eating shop food right now.
“I don’t want to make this a big deal but it has really taken my appetite.”
The customer, who does not buy ready meals often but regularly shops at Tesco for groceries said she will be more careful in the future.
She washes all fresh vegetables but adds she will ‘inspect’ ready meals more closely to ensure an incident like this doesn’t happen again.
She added: “In terms of the meal I’m thinking of letting the insect out then throwing the salad away.
“If I was eating this in a hurry I wouldn’t have noticed it which is concerning, I could’ve got sick.”
A Tesco spokesman said: “We're sorry to hear about this. We have robust processes in places but on very rare occasions insects can sometimes sneak through our suppliers’ checks.
" In a situation like this, the customer can return the item to one of our stores for a full refund.”
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