British Woman finds 'strawberry condom' in supermarket curry

A British woman who received a £1.49 refund after discovering what looked like an unravelled condom in her curry is taking legal action.

A woman who received a £1.49 refund after discovering what looked like an unravelled condom in her curry is taking legal action.

Emily Lewis-Shepherd said she had popped the ready-meal chicken curry in the microwave to heat it up for her lunch and was just giving it a stir when she noticed the pink object at the bottom.

She said she believed it was a strawberry-flavoured condom.

The 18-year-old, who works for a reprographics company in Cardiff Bay, south Wales, said: "I pulled it out and thought it was a tomato skin at first, but then realised what it was.

"Everyone had a look to see and it definitely was a condom. You could smell the strawberry. I just held it out on a fork."

Her mother had bought the ready-made chicken korma at their local Tesco store in Penarth marina, just outside Cardiff, last week. Miss Lewis-Shepherd had taken it into work for lunch but said it could just as easily have been given to her three-year-old niece instead.

"I was absolutely disgusted that something like this got into food," she said. "It's a serious matter. "My mother could have fed it to my niece and she could have choked on it. I used to like curries but I am not having any more. I have been put off for life."

Miss Lewis-Shepherd said she took the curry straight back to Tesco who apologised, gave her a £1.49 refund and said they would get back to her in four to six weeks after they had conducted tests. She says she intends to take the matter further.

Tesco spokesman Russell Craig said it wasn't possible to say what the "foreign body" in Miss Lewis-Shepherd's curry was, other than it was a "piece of red plastic", until tests had been completed.

She added: "We do take product contamination very seriously. We are currently investigating what the foreign body is and how it got there with our suppliers. As soon as that has been established, we will be back in contact with the customer."