Coles’ ‘bizarre’ response after shopper’s ‘crispy’ find in chicken
A shopper was left reeling in disgust after making grotesque discovery in a pack of Coles chicken she was preparing for a stir fry.
After separating two of the Coles branded Australian chicken breast fillets, the customer encountered an unsightly infestation of flies - one insect was squished between two fillets and two more appeared to be "chopped up".
"I opened the pack to slice for a stir fry for dinner and was disgusted to discover a green crispy fly amongst the fillets," the shopper wrote to Coles in a message shared with Yahoo News Australia.
"There was a whole insect plus bits of another. I had actually sliced some of the fillet and put it in the pan before I realised there were flies in the pack."
She said she had never experienced such a poor hygiene issue in her life and was shocked the product somehow made its way to the shelf.
"Needless to say I was so sick to my stomach, dinner was ruined and I ate nothing but vegetables for dinner," she told the supermarket.
Returning the pack for a new one is also not a simple feat as she lives "almost 40 kilometres from town". She said an hour-long round trip for $5 was "not worthwhile".
"The experience was really quite disturbing and I will not buy meat from Coles ever again in the future," she said.
The chicken has been frozen and will be taken back to Coles on her next trip to town.
Coles responded to her complaint with an apology and asked if she had sought medical attention following the "incident".
"I thought their question was quite bizarre," she told Yahoo News Australia.
"I had noticed the insects while slicing the fillets for a stir fry so of course I hadn't eaten any of the product although some had made it to the pan."
Coles encouraged her to return the product to a store when she was able to, and informed her that the matter had been passed on to the retailer's National Quality Team.
"Once again, we're sorry for the poor experience and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention," Coles told her.
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Coles for further comment.
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