Woman horrified after finding maggot infestation in Lidl eggs

Alice Evans, from Maidstone, Kent, picked up six free range eggs from her local Lidl recently, thinking she'd purchased a whole heap of protein packed goodness.

Despite being well within date, she couldn't believe what she was seeing when she opened one of them up.

Rather than an appealing gooey yolk, Alice was confronted with a bunch of creatures wriggling away.

"My partner had unpacked the shopping and just put it away," she recalled.

"I opened my fridge and could smell something funny so I emptied it out completely and cleaned it because I thought it might have been the fridge smelling.

"The only way I can explain [the smell] really is like rotting fish.

"As I went to pack it all away I opened the eggs to put them in the egg compartment in the fridge and I just saw these maggots crawling everywhere.

"I was just completely horrified. It was absolutely disgusting. It's a health hazard.

"Then looking back in the shopping bag there were maggots in the bottom of there as well."

After complaining to the manager of the Lidl in Farleigh Hill, Alice said she was offered a free box of eggs, which she rejected, and then a £12 refund on her £60 shop - which she had had to throw away for fear of contamination.

The mum went on to claim: "The manager said, 'It could happen in any shop really, it's one of those things. You can get a fly in the produce and it can produce maggots'.

"He apologised for it and offered me another free box of eggs. I didn't take it, I said no I wasn't very happy with that.

"He ended up going off and calling his area manager and customer services and they said they needed proof of all my other food having maggots near it.

"I said 'I don't have any proof I chucked it all out, I'm not going to keep that'. Then he offered to give me my money back for a couple of my fridge items - I think I got about £12 back."

The traumatic experience has caused Alice to check her eggs thoroughly whenever she's at the shops, and she's urging others to do the same.

She added: "It's made me more conscious about giving them to my daughter and if I do I'll be checking them and double checking them when I crack them and smelling them.

"It's put me off shopping at Lidl, I won't be going back there."

A spokesperson for Lidl said: "We were very sorry to hear of this matter, as it is never our intention for a customer to be dissatisfied in any way.

"We work very closely with our suppliers to ensure that the products we offer are of the highest possible quality for our customers. We were therefore disappointed that our expected high standards were not met on this occasion.

"We can confirm that upon returning to store the customer was given a replacement item, along with a further gesture of goodwill for any inconvenience caused."