Aldi store under fire after woman finds bugs in toddler's meal

A woman was mortified to find the ready meal she bought for her toddler was full of bugs, some of which she said ‘were still living’ and crawling all over her shopping bag. She had bought the products from the Aldi store in Holmes Chapel. The budget retailer has since offered the horrified customer an apology and a shopping voucher.

‘Massive shock’

Hannah Johnson, 31, had gone shopping at the Aldi in her neighbourhood where she bought two pots of Mamia organic bolognese pasta bake for her 23-month-old toddler. Speaking to CheshireLive, Johnson said the insects which she couldn’t identify, were lodged between the two products, and had started crawling out of the shopping bag and all over her kitchen table.

As I was unpacking these ready-meals on the side, I noticed some living ones fall off and start crawling across my table. They were all over other my shopping in the bag, so I had to throw loads out, deep clean the house and myself. It wasn’t a nice day. I didn’t want to eat anything after that.

Mortified, she immediately rang the store where she bought the stuff. She was offered a £40 shopping voucher in compensation, but she did go ahead to report the incident to the Cheshire East Council which is now investigating her claims, The Mirror reports.

Rare but not impossible

When contacted by CheshireLive, an Aldi spokesperson explained that although it is rare for customers to find bugs in the products they buy from their shop, such incidents are possible.

Although very rare, incidents like this can occasionally occur if packaging is damaged at any point before the product is consumed.

Johnson insisted that the bugs were like nothing she had seen before, deepening the mystery on where they may have come from and how widespread their infestation might be. This is something that the Cheshire East Council is investigating. Its spokesperson said:

We can confirm that we have received a complaint from a member of the public and we have visited the store in question and spoken with the customer.

Sources used:

CheshireLive: Probe into Aldi store after toddler's meal 'infested with bugs'

Mirror: Mums horror at finding toddler's meals bought at Aldi infested with crawling bugs

Liverpool Echo: Horrified mum found toddler's Aldi meal infested with bugs

Read more:

⋙ This bargain Aldi product impresses users as it slashes energy cost to only 8p an hour

⋙ Aldi issues urgent recall of one popular product over mislabelling

⋙ Aldi’s surplus food to be available for only £3.30 in trial run with Too Good To Go