A Tesco customer has claimed that she discovered a live bee stowed inside a punnet of raspberries purchased from the supermarket.
Lucy Allen told the Evening Standard that she was snacking on the fruit - imported from Morocco - bought at a branch of Tesco Express in Tulse Hill, south London, as she decorated a dessert at her friend’s house.
She claims after picking one of the raspberries to put in her mouth, she spotted the bee's legs poking out from inside the fruit.
She told the Standard: “When I went to make the dessert, I ate a couple. I was putting them onto a chocolate mousse.
“I picked one up, but then I saw the back end of an insect inside it. I was very close to eating it. It gave me a shock.
'We poked it with the end of a pen and it started moving.”
Allen said she and a friend managed to trap the creature in a jar over concerns it could be carrying bacteria and disease because the raspberries had been imported from the North African nation.
She added: “You just don’t know about these things. If you think about when you come through customs on a flight, you are not allowed to bring any fruit and this is why.
“I certainly wouldn’t have liked to have been stung by it.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have extremely high standards for the products we put on our shelves and work hard to inspect our fruit carefully.
“Due to the time of year, this product has been sourced from outside the UK so it is not immediately clear how this may have happened.
“We have asked Ms Allen to return the raspberries so we can investigate with our supplier.”
