Lidl has apologised after a customer claimed she accidentally ate fly eggs lurking in their sushi, leaving her fearing maggots would hatch inside her. Megan Janes bought the £4.99 Raku salmon lovers 10-piece sushi box from Lidl in Wantage, Oxfordshire, on July 27 to help cure her hangover.
The 28-year-old said she had eaten around eight of the salmon pieces before something caught her eye, and she was horrified to discover a cluster of what she believed were fly eggs. After instantly retching and feeling panicked, she stopped eating the sushi straightaway and kept the leftovers in her kitchen as evidence.
Eggs hatched into maggots
The field sales manager claims the eggs hatched into baby maggots the following day and described the thought of them wriggling inside her as her worst fear. Stomach-churning footage showing the tiny maggot-like creatures wriggling inside the packaging and Megan's horrified face has gone viral, racking up more than 47,000 views.
After complaining to Lidl, she received a £10 coupon to be redeemed in-store, but claims she has been put off shopping there in future. Lidl apologised that their high standards were not met and confirmed a refund and goodwill gesture had been issued.
Customer's reaction
Megan, from Oxford, said: "I was horrified and I was so shocked, it was quite surreal. I'd got through the majority of the sushi and I tend to inspect each bit, but I was hungover and not really with it."
"I hadn't really paid attention too much, but something caught my eye, it was a big cluster of [eggs]. I said to my boyfriend 'something doesn't look right about this'. He said 'it's fine, it's just seeds' and I said 'no, it's definitely not seeds'."
"When you get ready-to-go food you just don't expect that to be in there. It immediately made me heave and feel sick to my stomach."
"I Googled it and put it in Chat GPT and it said 'stop eating this right away', it made me panic. On Tuesday morning the eggs had flattened because the insects were now out of these eggs and crawling out of the fish and the rice."
"I was scared the insects might be growing or hatching inside me, that's what I was really worried about. When I first found it, my boyfriend was like 'what's wrong?' because I was retching. He was trying to reassure me that my stomach acid should kill them."
"He was trying to calm me down, but I was really panicking. That's my worst fear. I don't like insects as it is, I'm quite scared of them."
"I felt like it was like a bushtrucker trial. I remember watching I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here once and seeing one of the insects get stuck inside the contestant's ear or nose."
"I've always thought that's my worst fear to have insects in places they shouldn't be, so to have that was almost like having one of my biggest fears come true. The past few days have been horrible, I've been waiting for some form of disease. I've been lucky that I've not been terrible - I've had a dodgy stomach and stomach cramps."
Lidl's response
After sending multiple emails and photos to Lidl, Megan received a £10 coupon. Megan said: "It's put me off shopping at Lidl again. It's my main food shop as well, it's not ideal for me obviously."
"It's not something I'd like to think is common. I wouldn't necessarily want to scare people off of it, but [I would say] definitely be careful."
A spokesperson from Lidl GB said: "At Lidl GB, we work closely with our suppliers to ensure all products meet strict quality standards. While rare, damage to outer packaging can sometimes occur, which can lead to product deterioration."
"We were very sorry to learn that on this occasion our high standards were not met, and can confirm that both a refund and a goodwill gesture have now been issued to the customer."
A spokesperson for Taiko Foods, who creates the Raku range, said: "Taiko Foods operates to the highest standards of food safety and hygiene. We have fully investigated this matter and we are entirely satisfied that there was no product contamination within the manufacturing process."
