An insurance worker was advised to return a live wasp to a Tesco branch after he claimed to have found it in a bag of Tesco spinach.
Rob Bates, 27, told the Evening Standard he found the 'drowsy' insect when he opened the bag for his lunch two days after buying it.
Bates said he had purchased the packet from the Tesco Metro store on Eastcheap, near Monument station in London on 4 January.
After making the find on 6 January, he Tweeted to tell the supermarket what had happened.
But Tesco responded on the social media platform, telling him that he should return the bag, the wasp and his receipt to the store in order to be given a refund.
Bates, though, said he had binned the bag because he is allergic to wasps.
He told the Standard: “I was asked to take my receipt and the bag of spinach with the wasp to Tesco, but I couldn’t be bothered with that.
“I’m not angry or annoyed these things happen. I don’t know if it sneaked in when the spinach was being packaged but we all make mistakes.
“I’m happy with Tesco’s response. I was just shocked when I first saw it and wondered how it got in there. I had eaten from it happily a couple of times before I noticed it. Everyone at work found it funny.”
A Tesco spokesman said: “We have extremely high standards for the products we put on our shelves and work hard to inspect our salad carefully.
'However, due to the freshness of our produce incidences like this can happen on very rare occasions.
'We have apologised to Mr Bates and have offered him a refund.”
