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<\/p>\nA woman has been left feeling \u201cgut-wrenchingly sick\u201d after dozens of worms spilled out of her Asda roast chicken \u2013 and only after her family had eaten it.<\/p>\n
Vanessa Lucas-Smith, 44, served up the \u201csucculent extra tasty small whole chicken in a bag\u201d for her ex-hubby and their two kids last week.<\/p>\n
But when her ex went to help himself to more of the \u00a34.40 chicken, he apparently discovered the creatures spilling out of it. Stomach-churning images appear to show more than a dozen dead insects swimming in the chicken juice.<\/p>\n
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Asda says the creatures are the larvae of the litter beetle, also known as the darkling beetle or lesser mealworms, which can harbour various pathogens, including salmonella, e-coli and avian flu. It\u2019s thought they managed to hitch a ride onto the family\u2019s dinner table because part of the chicken\u2019s stomach wasn\u2019t removed during the manufacturing process.<\/p>\n
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Vanessa, who lives on the Isle of Dogs, London, said: \u201cI was cooking a normal family dinner for me and my two kids. The kids\u2019 dad had come down from Preston to visit them so I thought I\u2019d do a roast because everyone likes that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cooked the dinner as normal and got all the bits and pieces like potatoes and cauliflower cheese and I cut up the chicken and initially didn\u2019t notice anything. So I cut the chicken, served it out and we all ate the chicken, which I now feel gut-wrenchingly sick about. And then my ex-partner went through to the kitchen for a bit more, then he carved it up and discovered the stomach.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe looked closer and at first I thought it was full of maggots but then we realised it was full of mealworms, and you can see chicken grain in there, too. We opened the stomach up a bit and all the mealworms came out. It was so revolting. They all stayed intact despite being cooked. It was rank, it was really disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa, who\u2019s mum to Daniel Lucas-Smith, 2, and Cleo Lucas-Ibrihim, 5, said: \u201cWe thought this is disgraceful and we took some pictures to show Asda what it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this is awful because we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going into the food chain. This is how serious illnesses start.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re all really grossed out \u2013 I felt bad everyone had eaten some. I know my daughter will never eat chicken again after that. No one was ill but we all felt really queasy. We\u2019re not going to touch chicken for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Asda spokesperson said: \u201cWe always want our customers to be pleased with the products they buy from Asda so we are disappointed that Ms Lucas-Smith has purchased a product which falls below our high expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have apologised to her and offered a full refund as well as a gesture of goodwill. It appears that a key stage in the preparation of this product has been missed and we are investigating how this could have happened with our supplier.\u201d<\/p>\n
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