A worried father has told how he got the shock of his life during a family dinner after he bit into a needle buried in his trifle.

George Hall, 35, of Abberton Road, Layer de la Haye, said he was tucking into a strawberry flavoured trifle with his children Anny-May, nine, and seven-year-old Jamie, when something stuck into the roof of his mouth.

He said when he pulled it out of his mouth, he realised it was a tiny sewing needle.

He said: "I am totally disgusted about it but at the time I was more afraid of what might have happened if either of my children had got it in their portion.

"My wife made the trifle but she did not see it because it was so small and you would not notice something like that unless you were actually looking for it.

"So it was not until I got to the jelly part that I noticed it. I do the sewing in our family and I know this is not one of my needles so it must have been in the packet."

The make-your-own trifle packet was bought at the Asda store in Colchester on Saturday.

A spokeswomen for Asda said: "We take all calls like this seriously and our aim with branded products is to get the product back to the supplier as quickly as possible for an investigation.

"It may be a one-off or it may be more serious. But at this stage there is no reason for us to think that it is anything other than a one-off. We cannot do anything until we hear back from Bird's."

She said they had written to Mr Hall apologising for any inconvenience and given him a full refund and a goodwill gesture.

A spokeswoman for Bird's said: "Obviously we want to carry out a full investigation and I understand that Mr Hall is couriering the product and packaging to us. We have not had any other complaints so believe this is an isolated incident.

"We will, of course, contact Mr Hall with the results of our investigation once it is complete."

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