Hamilton teen finds insect in Greggs sandwich

Nov 26 2009 by Gary Fanning, Hamilton Advertiser

A TEENAGER got more than he bargained for when he bought his lunch from a popular bakers in Hamilton.

Pizza worker Iain Pratt was horrified after he bit into a Greggs Xtra-bite Chicken New Orleans and found a live bug inside the sandwich.

The shocked 18-year-old bought his lunch from Greggs shop in Quarry Street.

He took it home to eat and everything was okay when he ate the first sandwich.

But the former Hamilton Grammar and Chatelherault Primary pupil took one munch into the second white sandwich when he spotted the creepy-crawly moving its legs.

Iain said that an orange/red insect that he had never seen before must have been roaming around the lettuce inside the sandwich.

He spat the sandwich out and took it back to the shop to complain.

Iain, who works in Domino’s Pizza in Duke Street, said: “I took a bite into the sandwich and I could see the bugs legs, it was alive and moving. I couldn’t see its head.

“After I spat out the sandwich, I felt sick and just wanted to brush my teeth and clean my mouth.”

After finding the bug in his sandwich, Iain sent a text message to his mum Anne to tell her what happened.

She met him outside the Greggs store and they both went in together to complain.

Anne (43), who works in customer care at British Gas in Uddingston, added: “I told the staff that my son found a bug in his sandwich.

“All they would do is give him a complaint form to fill in.

“I asked to speak to the manageress who came out. It turned out that she served Iain but she couldn’t remember him. She said it must have been in the pre-packed stuff like the lettuce.

“The bug was red in colour and looked like a cross between a fly and a wasp and it was still moving in the sandwich.

“It certainly didn’t look like a bug you would get in this country. It’s just unacceptable.

“They just wanted to fob him off and didn’t want to look into it.

“I made sure we took a photograph of it before we handed over the sandwich.

“They haven’t even told us what it was in the sandwich.”

Following his complaint, Iain received a letter from Greggs and £10 worth of vouchers to spend in their shop.

He added: “I didn’t find out what was is in it.

“I quite liked Greggs, but I don’t think I will be use the voucher or be going back to Greggs again.”

A spokeswoman on behalf of Greggs said: “Greggs takes all customer concerns very seriously and an investigation into this incident is underway.

“Quality is our highest priority and we have strict procedures in place to prevent contamination of our products.

“Once a thorough analysis of the returned product has been carried out we will be able to provide a full response directly to our customer.

“Meantime, we have written to the customer expressing our concern.”