Blackburn shopper finds worm in Tesco Finest lettuce

The customer, who wanted to be known by his first name Faisel, said he bought the Tesco Finest sweetheart lettuce on Monday evening from the Blackburn store in Hill Street.

Tesco apologised and said they had 'robust' processes in place to prevent insects and worms getting into their fruit and vegetables.

The lettuce was sealed inside packaging and Faisel said he had put it into the fridge after getting home.

Later, his wife opened it and she spotted a live worm crawling around on one of the lettuce leaves.

He said: “My wife was preparing a chicken wrap and opened the packaging and got a bit of a shock. 

“She then called me over to take a look.

“We couldn’t believe it to be honest and it was still alive. It was crawling around on the lettuce leaf.

“There were a lot of holes in the leaves and it appears to have been eating its way through it.

“It was all packaged up so I am not sure how it has managed to get inside and stay alive.

“When we looked closer there was also a dead fly in the package at the bottom.

“It was pretty disgusting to see and to think we put it in the fridge too.”

Faisel said he shops at the store regularly and has never had such issues before.

“It was the ‘Finest’ collection so I would think it would be of a higher standard," he added.

“It was within its sell-by date which was June 3 so there should not be any real issues.

“I go to Tesco as it is the nearest store to my house and we have never had any issues with products from the store before.

“I rang Tesco and they said I should just go back to the store with the product.”

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to hear about this. We have robust processes in places to prevent insects and worms travelling with our fruit and vegetables.

"On very rare occasions they can sometimes sneak through our suppliers’ checks, and when this happens we’re always happy to provide the customer with a full refund or replacement item.”