Unexpected object found in ready meal - what to do?

[sneaksms]

Hi,

 

Beyond contacting the seller and the manufacturer, what else should I do after finding a rogue item in a ready meal?

 

It's a piece of thick cardboard (I think) with printed letters on it - it's too thick to be part of the packaging.

 

This sort of thing obviously shouldn't be in the food. Is there anyone else I should get in touch with to report it? Environmental health?

 

I don't want any compensation, but I do want to make sure that this is actually looked into and acted upon appropriately.

 

Or should I just ignore it and not buy again?

[Conniff]

Take it back where you got it from especially if it was a supermarket. You will come off better ie replacement item/refund plus vouchers.

 

As no harm was done and it wasn't an objectionable object and more than likely a one off, do yourself a favour.

[sneaksms]

Refund doesn't really bother me, it's a couple of quid, but it starts with a bit of cardboard, next thing you know there's an eyeball looking at you from the next meal Guess I'll just report it to Ocado, sure they've got someone that looks into these things to see if there's any real problem. Cheers.

[Conniff]

As you please.

[MARTIN3030]

Edited post.

 

Sorry was meaning to say Ocado will certainly take it up with Waitrose.

Edited October 24, 2010 by MARTIN3030

[MrShed]

I cant speak for Ocado, but certainly when I worked for Tesco any foreign body in food was looked into strenuously. I wouldnt have too much fear about it not being investigated properly.

[totiesquoties]

hi sneaksms,

so glad you have taken the time and trouble to post this, i have had things in the past, and found if you write to the company concerned, and send the foreign body, with a covering letter, and send yor receipt when and where you bought

the item from, and send it all recorded or special delivery, explaining in the letter what you found in your meal, and could they please look into your complaint, you will find you should definitely get a reply acknowledgeing this, and then a response and reply to your complaint, whether you get complimentary vouchers, etc, is immaterial, the main concern and object is you have alerted them, and this should never hopefully happen again, i found a piece of rubber in a pork pie,

and the company concerned throughly investigated and wrote back that it had come off their machinery and thanked me for alerting them, so hopefully this could not happen again, if you just take it back to the shop, they probably would just refund you, or give you something else in exchange, which is very nice, but not alerting manufacturer, producer, etc, of the problem, which they do want to know about, at least, like we did, you are doing your bit, to look after others, well done!.

hope this is helpful, totiesquoties.

[MARTIN3030]

"if you just take it back to the shop, they probably would just refund you, or give you something else in exchange, which is very nice, but not alerting manufacturer, producer, etc, of the problem"

 

I cant believe either Ocado or Waitrose would fail to alert the manufacturer/supplier.

[MrShed]

"if you just take it back to the shop, they probably would just refund you, or give you something else in exchange, which is very nice, but not alerting manufacturer, producer, etc, of the problem"

 

I cant believe either Ocado or Waitrose would fail to alert the manufacturer/supplier.

 

Again, cant speak for Ocado, but Tesco certainly did - we had to follow a different process for any foreign body/serious quality complaint, and the items were stored seperately for collection (as opposed to most returns which were just binned).

[sneaksms]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

I have since had a call from the owner of the company who make the product, and feel very much reassured.

 

The object found turns out to be the wrapping used on one of their ingredients - a very nice chorizo used in the production. It's the sort that you'd see hanging up in Spain with a thick cardboard wrapper on it. Now, whilst I don't want to be finding stuff in meals that isn't supposed to be there, it's not as bad as it would have been if it was something else! Turns out it's a small company with 5 employees, using great ingredients - so actually, I'm not that fussed about finding it. Was offered free vouchers and all that (which I declined), and will keep buying the product.

 

Much better than the various body parts and animals that turn up sometimes!