A horrified Londoner was left fearing for his health after discovering a dead rodent in a salad mix he bought from Tesco, after accidently putting it in his mouth.
The architect was eating dinner when he found the creature, believed to be a shrew, in his mixed-leaf 'ready to eat' salad on Monday evening.
He said it was only when he put the rodent in his mouth that he realised something was wrong with the Tesco brand organic salad.
The 53-year-old purchased the item from a Tesco Express store in Kentish Town, and said he had already eaten half of his meal before the shocking discovery.
He told the Standard: “It was only when it was in my mouth that I realised something was up. I spat it straight out and as you can imagine, immediately felt quiet unwell.
“I just tasted of the salad dressing I put on my dinner, but obviously didn’t feel right. Pretty revolting.
“I anesthetized my mouth straight away with lots of whiskey, and that seemed to do the trick. I have considered seeing a doctor and it’s clearly not very hygienic – but haven’t yet.”
After the horrific incident the architect said he called the supermarket’s customer services, who told him to return the packet to the England’s Lane store.
But the man, who asked not to be named, said he is “suspicious” that they would then dispose of the evidence.
He said he would also be contacting the Food Standards Agency.
A Tesco spokesman said: “We have robust food quality processes in place during the preparation and packaging of our products, so we were surprised to hear about this incident.
“Our customer service team have been in touch with [him] to ask him to return the product to one of our stores and we will be asking our supplier to carry out an investigation.”
