22-year-old Harry was biting into his third cheese and bacon roll from the Australian supermarket giant Woolworths when he realised something was not quite right
Imagine biting into a delicious-looking cheese and bacon roll from your favourite bakery, and whilst you’re eating it — a writhing maggot pops out and falls right in front of your eyes.
That’s exactly what happened to 22-year-old Harry, who was biting into his third cheese and bacon roll from Australian supermarket giant Woolworths when he realised something was not quite right.
Harry’s mother, Maureen, was visiting him and his girlfriend in Darwin, Australia, earlier this month, when she decided to pop into the Woolworths in Coolalinga to buy her son his favourite snack.
All was okay for the first two bread rolls that Harry consumed; however, by the time he was happily chomping away at the third, out popped a maggot.
Speaking to news.com.au , the 64-year-old mom shared: “He [Harry] started eating them and then when he got to the third one, a maggot dropped out on his phone. He nearly threw up.”
They then looked through the rest of the packet and found several more maggots inside another roll, with the mum from Adelaide saying she was in “disbelief” when they first made the revolting discovery. Luckily, her son Harry didn’t fall ill after eating the bread rolls, but she says the ordeal was still “traumatic” for him.
A Woolworths spokesperson said: “We take food quality and safety very seriously,” adding that the issue had already been raised with the concerned team of the store in question.
The spokesperson added: “We have apologised to the customer for their experience and we are not aware of any further reports of a similar nature at this time.”
Maureen reportedly took the maggot-infested packet of cheese and bacon rolls back to Woolworths’ Coolalinga store on August 10 and had a word with two of the store’s supervisors who were on duty at the time. According to the Adelaide local, both seemed like they had “no idea what to do” in the situation.
Ultimately, Maureen was informed that the supervisors would speak to the store manager and he would, in turn, contact her. The mom then allegedly requested the employees on duty to take the other packets of the cheese and bacon rolls off the shelves, citing they may cause health issues for other customers.
However, Maureen claims her request was refused as the employees informed her they would have to “open the packets and inspect them”.
She added: “I’m really disappointed that Woolies refused to even look at other packets on the day that we took that back.”
Post this interaction, Maureen submitted a consumer complaint through the Ajust platform — a service that uses artificial intelligence to aid customers in lodging their complaints to businesses.
The very next day, the store manager reportedly called Maureen and apologised, explaining that the rolls in question had been baked in Sydney and were shipped frozen to Woolworths’ Darwin store. He said the issue had been forwarded to Woolworths’ regulatory department for investigation. Maureen was reportedly offered no compensation.
After failing to receive any further communication from Woolworths regarding their complaint, on August 13 Ajust published the mother and son’s jaw-dropping story on its social media pages, and it quickly went viral.
Maureen then received an email from the retail giant’s customer service team two days later, which requested for more information about the incident and also included an apology. As per the 64-year-old mom, the requested information was details she had already provided to the supermarket chain and had been assured were already passed on to the concerned teams.
More than a refund, Maureen says she wants “some transparency” about the situation, as she wants to understand what the investigation involves and whether any action is being taken in response to the appalling incident.
“I think it will help me to understand and to feel a bit more confident going forward if I choose to buy any more product from one of their bakeries,” she said.