Hastings mum's horror at food delivery covered in 'foul-smelling substance with maggots'
A Hastings mum was horrified when her Tesco food delivery arrived which she says was covered in a 'foul-smelling substance containing live maggots'.
Georgina Tebay said: “When the delivery arrived, the driver told us that the entire van had been smelling strongly of something rotten throughout the evening. He said he had been unable to identify where the smell was coming from until we discovered the contaminated crate. The crate contained a brown, foul-smelling substance with maggots in it.
“Unfortunately, by the time we discovered this, I had already started putting some of the shopping away in our fridge while my husband was bringing the remaining crates inside. We have a seven-month-old baby, so the fact that potentially contaminated food had been brought into our home and was being put away next to our baby’s food and bottles has been extremely distressing.
“The substance had also got onto our kitchen surfaces, sink and bin. The delivery driver got some on his hands and came inside to wash them in our downstairs toilet. I have had to throw away a significant amount of food because I subsequently found contamination on other items, and I have thoroughly cleaned our fridge and kitchen.”
Georgina phoned Tesco that evening to report the incident and contacted its complaints department the next morning.
She said: “Tesco refunded my shopping and offered me £50 in compensation. I have told them that I do not believe this is remotely adequate given what happened.
“What concerns me most now is that this may not only affect my family.
“The delivery driver told us that the van had other deliveries to make that evening and had been smelling throughout the night. This means that other customers had their shopping transported in the same vehicle, potentially alongside the source of the contamination.”
She added: “I have been a Tesco customer for many years and have used their grocery delivery service regularly. I genuinely feel sick thinking about what happened.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We're sorry to hear about this. We set ourselves the highest store standards and take product quality extremely seriously, with comprehensive cleaning and food safety processes in place across all our stores and grocery home shopping vans. We have provided the customer with a full refund alongside a gesture of goodwill to apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
It said its specialist teams investigated the incident and added that it is believed that a packet of microwave rice had leaked into the crate.
The firm said as a precautionary measure it deep cleaned both the van and the crates used during the delivery.