An investigation and batch recall have been launched after what appears to be part of a rodent's foot was found in garlic bread a 10-month-old baby was eating from a Waikato supermarket.
Shannon Bellman noticed something "half hanging" out of her son's mouth while he was eating the garlic bread for lunch on Friday afternoon.
"I took it out of his mouth straight away and saw it was a rat's foot with fur still on it."
She said she was "absolutely horrified and beside myself".
"To think my five-year-old daughter and 10-month-old was eating it at the time and it ended up in my 10-month-old son's mouth who has a very low immune system as well, so he got quite sick and very unsettled."
Bellman called PAK'nSAVE Te Awamutu less than five minutes after the discovery and said she felt she was initially "shrugged off like it was nothing".
"It is absolutely disgusting, my baby had a rat's foot... in his lunch."
The store has responded to Bellman on social media after she posted about the find and her frustration.
A post on PAK'nSAVE Te Awamutu Facebook page read stated the garlic bread was made for the store by a third-party and was supplied fully wrapped and sealed
"Immediately after the customer got in touch, the store team took the batch of garlic bread off the shelves straight away, advised the supplier — and the customer has brought the product back to the store and been offered a refund."
Foodstuffs have initiated a recall of the batch of garlic bread product across its PAK'nSAVE, New World, Four Square, Gilmours, and Trents stores nationwide, the post said, as a "precautionary measure".
"Our store team is in regular contact with the customer who is understandably very concerned and, together with the supplier, Ministry of Primary Industries and NZ Food Safety, we’re working with urgency to get to the bottom of what’s happened here."
Food safety agency 'monitoring' inquiries
New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle told 1News the agency was aware of a complaint about a rodent foot reportedly being found in a two-pack roll of garlic bread roll from Pak’nSave Te Awamutu.
"The supplier and Foodstuffs are looking into the complaint, and NZFS is monitoring their work," Arbuckle said, in a statement.
"We will consider all possible points of contamination throughout the food chain."
A Foodstuffs spokesperson confirmed the garlic bread was made for the store by a third-party supplier and the product arrived at store fully wrapped and sealed.
The spokesperson reiterated a thorough investigation was immediately initiated after the complaint was received and a trade recall would remove the same batch of the garlic bread product from all shelves nationwide.
The Foodstuffs spokesperson added the company was commited to working with the supplier, Ministry of Primary Industries and NZ Food Safety "with urgency" to work out what had happened.
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