A LIDL customer has claimed he found sharp shards of plastic scattered around his bag of grated cheese.
Lee Patton was shocked after spotting several pieces of discarded plastic inside the 500g Simply Grated Cheddar bag that he bought from his local branch in Peterlee, County Durham, on Monday.
Images show pieces of cheese mixed among the dangerously-sharp pieces of plastic on Lee’s hand.
Lee claims he only discovered the pieces of plastic when he was sitting down with his family eating pasta that he had just made.
He said he looked down on his fork and noticed the pieces – prompting him to look back into the bag of cheese where he found even more.
He posted about the alleged discovery on Facebook later on that day, writing: “If anyone has bought the below cheese from Lidl recently then please check it! It’s the first time I have bought it and certainly the last.
“Just made some pasta bake for the family and found a piece of plastic in my second fork full, quick check through the packet and there is loads of grated, sharp pieces in there!”
The post has been shared over 300 times and received dozens of comments from shocked social media users.
One said: “I buy this. God will have to check carefully.”
Another wrote: “I’ve shared this incase. That’s seriously bad!”
A third commented: “After a quick search of my bag of cheese I managed to find a handful. Probably would find more if I did a more thorough search.”
However, one critic said: “Must of been from your bowl. Why would plastic be in a cheese factory for one, and plus it’s full of metal machines.”
Speaking today, Lee said: “I don’t typically buy pre-grated cheese or any kind of cheese from Lidl but I was in there picking up a few other bits so it was convenient as I was planning a pasta bake for tea. I cooked the pasta bake for me, my partner and four children.
“I found a piece of plastic in my second fork full when chewing my food, followed by one of my children so I immediately told them to stop eating whilst I checked the packet of cheese.
“I found at least two pieces of plastic in every hand full of cheese, I am yet to contact Lidl in regards to this but it is on my to do list today.
“I won’t be asking for compensation but I will be asking what measures they are going to take in order to prevent this from happening again and maybe an explanation as to how it happened in the first place.
“I will continue to shop there. I understand these things can happen, I guess it depends on how the communication with Lidl goes.
“If they are defensive, unwilling to accept responsibility or communicate with me in regards to how they will ensure this doesn’t happen again, then I may change my stance on shopping there.”
A spokesperson for Lidl today 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 sell are of the highest possible quality for our customers.
“We are, therefore, disappointed if our expected high standards were not met on this occasion.
“We strongly encourage customers to get in touch with our customer service team should they have any concerns about a product, so that it can be fully investigated with the supplier.”
