Aldi customer horrified by sickening find in rice: 'Stunk up the whole house'

An Australian man has been left disgusted after making an unsettling discovery of what he describes as a "dead mouse" in an Aldi packet of microwaveable brown rice.

Richard Ellis purchased the packet of Imperial Grain rice from his local Aldi store in Keilor Downs, Victoria but what he found inside left him feeling sick to his stomach.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up just talking about it," he told Yahoo News Australia of his ordeal.

After purchasing the packet of rice in December, he pulled it out of the cupboard to cook on January 7. But after a horrid smell filled the house, he knew something wasn’t right.

"I opened the door of the microwave and thought: 'What is that smell?'," he said.

After removing the rice and opening up the packet, he made a gruesome find - a dark lump caked into the rice, which appeared to have the shape of a rodent.

"I spread out all the rice and had a look and I couldn't believe it, it looked like a mouse. It had an eye in it, fur, a head," he revealed.

"It stunk up the whole place. I had to throw the microwave out."

Mr Ellis said the “dead animal smell” was so strong, it left the “worst smell ever” throughout his home and that every window and door needed to be left open to remove it.

“I haven't eaten rice since, it's completely put me off,” he said.

Aldi manager says matter under investigation

He took the apparent mouse back to his local Aldi, where he was offered a refund of $1.74. He returned a week later and spoke to the manager at the store and was told that the strange find was under investigation.

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“They offered to give me my $1.74 but I don't want the money, all I care about is finding out what it is."

“I posted it on Facebook and tagged every Aldi I could find and tried to message them on Instagram but they haven't gotten back to me,” he explained.

Yahoo News Australia reached out to Aldi Australia with a spokesperson saying a complaint should be made via their help centre.

"We encourage any customer to feedback to Aldi directly via the help centre, so we can investigate the allegation," the spokesperson said.

Mr Ellis said the mystery object was as long as a tablespoon and left him turned off rice for good.

"What if a little old lady with no sense of smell came across this?" He said.

"It's just not on. They've got like 400 rice flavours and I just happened to get the one with the mouse in it.”

Aldi customers respond to shocking find

In an effort to let others know about the disturbing find Mr Ellis shared photos of it on social media where several other Aldi customers were equally as horrified.

"OMG yuck, I'll be throwing mine out,” one person commented, with another saying "I'd be letting Food Standards Australia and New Zealand know as well as Aldi Australia. That could be a wider contamination issue."

Another Aldi shopper said she'd also seen a similar object in the same brand of rice, but threw it away.

"Oh my god! We had this in our packet too but I thought it was mould. How do you know it was a mouse?" she commented.

Others also questioned whether the object was mould, or not.

Imperial Grain Microwave Rice, which is made in Thailand and is a registered trademark of Aldi - has been recalled in the past due to a hazard of "potential growth of mould that may cause illness if consumed".

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