Horror as caterpillars found in frozen peas bag

A grandmother made a gruesome discovery whilst preparing the evening meal when she discovered dead caterpillars in a bag of frozen pigeon peas.Horrified Krishna Ruparelia bought the Taj Foods vegetable from her local Asda store in Colindale. Her daughter-in-law Jignasha told Eastern Eye that Krishna was horrified by the discovery on July 19, and immediately sent her a picture of the large insects.

“My mother-in-law opened the packet and poured the peas into the colander,” Ruparelia said.

“She said: ‘Oh my god, you won’t believe what happened today?’. She was disgusted, they were two-and-a-half times the size of the peas. She was absolutely horrified and shocked. She was going to make an aubergine and pea curry with it.”

Ruparelia contacted the company the next day, but was very unhappy with the way her complaint was dealt with.

“It was ridiculous, I was asked to send the insects in the post but refused, they didn’t take the issue seriously. It’s a serious public food hazard and their lack of customer service is astounding.

The company eventually agreed to collect the packet and the family were told they would be refunded the full cost of the peas. The Ruparelias were then offered a token compensation sum of £25.

A spokesperson from Taj Foods said: “We take complaints of this nature extremely seriously and have found this to be a very rare incident.

“We vigorously comply with all health and safety regulations and only source our products from BRC-approved factories who have stringent quality checks in place.

“We have investigated this complaint and were unable to confirm whether it has in fact originated from our products.

“However, as a gesture of goodwill, we have given the customer in question a full refund and an ex gratia payment, and as far as we are aware the matter was mutually resolved.”

A London borough of Barking and Dagenham spokesman said: “We are aware of the complaint and are carrying out investigations. We are unable to comment any further at this stage.”

“The first thing you do when you have a customer complaint is apologise.”

The company eventually agreed to collect the packet and the family were told they would be refunded the full cost of the peas. The Ruparelias were then offered a token compensation sum of £25.

A spokesperson from Taj Foods said: “We take complaints of this nature extremely seriously and have found this to be a very rare incident.

“We vigorously comply with all health and safety regulations and only source our products from BRC-approved factories who have stringent quality checks in place.

“We have investigated this complaint and were unable to confirm whether it has in fact originated from our products.

“However, as a gesture of goodwill, we have given the customer in question a full refund and an ex gratia payment, and as far as we are aware the matter was mutually resolved.”

A London borough of Barking and Dagenham spokesman said: “We are aware of the complaint and are carrying out investigations. We are unable to comment any further at this stage.”