A woman has been 'put off Subway for life' after her nephew chewed on what she believes to be a chicken claw in his Meatball Marinara.
Lauren Eastwood treated her nephew Luke to lunch at the Meadowhall shopping centre, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, at the end of July - but claims their meal was ruined by a grisly discovery.
The 26-year-old sales assistant, her mum Linda Catlow, 69, and Luke, 12, had all happily tucked into their food when Lauren claims her nephew bit into a 'really hard' object in his meatball sub, which he handed over to her.
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Lauren claims as she pulled away other bits of food, she was left holding what appeared to be a chicken claw - and desperately tried to remain calm so as not to upset already 'grossed out' Luke.
Subway confirmed the franchisee has 'taken action' to rectify the 'isolated incident'.
Lauren, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, said: "At first, I couldn't tell what it was but once I'd pulled all the food away, it was definitely a claw.
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"I couldn't eat anything else all day. I felt sick. It's put me off Subway in the future. I'm never going there again.
"After closer inspection and removing the soft food from around the item we were horrified to find that it was actually an animal claw.
"My nephew was grossed out. We didn't want to tell him what it was and traumatise him but once we took him home and we talked about it, it was definitely a claw.
"My poor nephew is totally shaken from the experience as you do not expect these things to happen and he could have quite easily choked on the animal remains."
Lauren decided to send a photo to a farmer friend and claims her pal said the object looked like it originated from poultry.
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Lauren says her mum Linda went up to the restaurant staff to show them the 'sickening' discovery and complain.
But the aunt claims a Subway employee took the item out of Linda's hand and immediately 'threw it in the bin'.
Lauren said: "I'd not been to Subway for about two years and really fancied one. Luke had eaten half of it and was like 'mm this is really nice this sandwich'. Then he bit down on something really hard, pulled it out his mouth and was like 'what the heck is that?'.
"My mum went to tell them and the member of staff was like 'no, that shouldn't be in the sandwich' then threw it in the bin. I was like 'how can that get in a beef meatball?'. I don't understand.
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"My friend who I work with lives on a farm and as soon as I showed her the photo she said 'that's a chicken claw' straight away."
Now Lauren has been left checking her food for fear other unwanted extras could be lurking inside as she eats.
Lauren said: "You're just checking all your food. Me and my mum felt so sick after that and I said 'I can't eat meat'. It put me off meat for a week. I couldn't stop thinking about it."
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After being contacted for comment, Subway claims it has 'multiple diligent processes in place' to prevent issues like this arising.
A spokesperson for Subway said: "The health and safety of our guests is of paramount importance to Subway and we have multiple diligent processes in place to ensure that our guests are served with only the safest products possible.
"We understand that the franchisee has taken action to rectify this isolated incident."