Woolworths' standards questioned after shopper's 'disgusting' find in salad mix
The customer was offered a refund but wants the supermarket to raise its standards.
A man said he was “disgusted” after making a gruesome discovery while getting stuck into his Woolworths salad.
Viraji Patel was on his lunch break on Monday when he combined a mixed salad from Woolies with a few pieces of falafel and some dressing. He was enjoying the meal when suddenly he looked down.
“I started eating right away and while eating I noticed there was something black, and then I looked carefully and it was an insect, and I was literally disgusted and threw it right away,” the 24-year-old from Melbourne told Yahoo News Australia.
In a series of images, a dark insect — believed to be a field cricket — can be seen next to a few pieces of shredded carrot and spinach leaves. Viraji said the bug was about one and a half centimetres long.
“I was disgusted,” he said again. “The first thought I had was I was glad that I didn’t put that in my mouth accidentally.”
Woolworths must ‘raise standards’
After picking up the salad mix from Woolies in Oakleigh in the city’s southeast, the customer made a complaint to the supermarket.
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“I contacted Woolworths and they said, ‘we will refund you $5’,” Viraji explained. “I was like, ‘I don’t need your $5 gift voucher. First of all, I am a vegetarian... and there are not a lot of options for me.
“They should raise the standards if they are serving all of Australia and something like this happens. And I saw it’s not just me. More people have found bugs and insects in their salads.”
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for Woolworths said it takes all customer feedback seriously and that they “understand this must have been an unwelcome surprise for this customer”.
“We have been speaking to this customer directly and have investigated this with our team and supplier as a priority. Our supplier conducted numerous quality assessments on this batch of mixed salad leaves and did not detect any foreign objects throughout the processing, so this appears to be an isolated incident.”
Deadly and still alive in salad
A Perth woman was also midway through her lunch when she spotted an unwelcome guest among her caesar salad.
A black beetle-looking insect had somehow made its way into the airtight box which the customer had picked up from Woolies in Singleton. “Way to ruin my lunch mate,” she wrote on Facebook.
While last year a Queensland woman discovered a very much alive redback spider lurking in her punnet of grapes. It had even spun webs throughout the fruit.
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