One Asda shopper got a supermarket substitution they weren't counting on recently when they found a fly in a sealed pack of ham.
The 47 year-old nurse from Swindon, who wished to remain anonymous, had ordered home delivery for her groceries and was shocked to discover the insect inside the meat packet.
"I don’t know much about the manufacturing process or what infection control measures they have in place but I feel the entire batch is likely to have been infected potentially with flies walking across them," she told The Adver.
"This is why after speaking to a few friends I decided to post on my local Facebook neighbourhood page to inform others locally. If anyone is unwell after eating ham from Asda I don’t want to be responsible for not raising any awareness."
The post on Facebook said: "Might want to reconsider eating Ham from this store. This was delivered this evening to my home. Vacuum sealed with extra protein"
With concerns over how the fly came to be sealed in the pack of ham in the first place, and how it wasn't noticed during the process of packing and delivering it to her home from the Orbital Asda store, the unhappy shopper contacted the supermarket giant's customer service to tell them about it.
In an email response to her issue, entitled 'Potential PR Risk', ASDA apologised for the unwanted ingredient in her ham, saying that unfortunately it can happen, and offered her a gift voucher as compensation.
Jason from the chain's executive relations team said in the email, seen by the Adver: "I am very sorry to see that a fly was inside your pre-packed ham slices. I can understand why you would be disappointed and concerned."
He further explained: "With this being a fly and having the ability to walk or fly within the production lines we cannot 100% eradicate the possibility that one may get into packaging. We do all we possibly can to make this as unlikely as possible and understand why a customer would be alarmed."
He said an investigation will be carried out and an immediate improvement has been promised, as well as a £15 e-gift card as a 'good will gesture'.
But the nurse felt that more needed to be done.
"I would like the manufacturing/packaging plant to be held accountable and an inspection to be taken place to determine whether this is an ongoing problem and to find out how that insect slipped passed quality control.
"I just want Asda to take responsibility and ensure it doesn’t happen again."
Asda have been contacted for comment
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