Tesco customer claims to have been left “off work for three weeks” after eating “maggot infested” oats

A TESCO customer has claimed that she was left “off work for three weeks” after eating “maggot infested” oats purchased from the supermarket giants.

Petronella Rwodzi claims to have bought four packs of Tesco branded Scottish oats last year from a store in Plaistow, London, which she says were still well within their expiry date.

The 24-year-old says she ate almost two of the packets in October, but was none the wiser to the stomach-churning contents that allegedly lay inside.

The accounts assistant claims she fell ill and was off work for about three weeks, whilst reportedly being taken to hospital where she says was informed that it was just a stomach bug.

Petronella, from Plaistow, claims that she was sick almost every day afterwards though, and soon realised that the packets of oats had “maggot eggs” growing inside them.

Images show the various bags of Tesco oats sitting in a binbag.

Upon closer inspection, maggots can indeed be seen within the bags of oats, whilst further skin-crawling photos show the larvae strewn around the binbag and even resident within a half-eaten bag of oats itself.

A separate video shows Petronella and flatmate Oladini Omalade pointing out the maggots within each bag of oats and claiming that they have had to throw out other items due to cotamination.

Oladini took to social media last month to share the images and video where she tagged Tesco and wrote: “My housemate purchased four of your 2kg Tesco branded Scottish oats.

“She has eaten one and a half bags of said oats and was terribly ill for four weeks.

“She has suffered with a stomach bug and has a GP note to confirm this. Today it has come ot our attention that we now have a maggot infestation in our property.

“On further inspection we realised that the oats that he purchased contained maggots and their eggs. See attached photos.

“There are maggots at various stages of their life in both the open and closed bags. She has had to throw out the remaining bags of oats, as well as other products that were also cross-contaminated.

“She is also at a monetary loss, due to the inability to go to work due to her illness.

“This is not acceptable from such a well-established and beloved supermarket and something needs to be done ASAP.”

Speaking today Petronella said: “I bought the oats earlier this year and they are still well within the expiry date.

“I have been consuming them not knowing they were contaminated, I have been unwell and had to take three weeks off work, but I had no idea what was causing it.

“I investigated my kitchen cupboards with my flat mate and realized that nothing else was contaminated inside except the packet of oats.

“They had all these maggots growing inside with eggs and all.

“I tried taking the packets back to a Tesco store in Dagenham, East London last month but I got turned away, I’d like to take action because this is unacceptable from a well-known and trustworthy supermarket.

“I was off work for about three weeks, I was feeling so unwell and went to Newham Hospital in Plaistow.

“The doctors just told me it was a stomach bug and that I’ll be fine if I drink plenty of fluids, but I think that made it worse.

“I was sick during that whole period and I was eating the oats almost everyday.”

Petronella’s flatmate Oladini said today: “I went abroad but before I left I noticed that I saw a maggot on her kitchen cupboard door and some strange insects on the kitchen ceiling.

“I didn’t bother to say anything, just putting it down to the warm weather.

“When I came back from my holiday and found an increased number of maggots and insects in the shared kitchen.

“This is when I spoke to another flatmate, so we called on the new flatmate to report this and asked if she wouldn’t mind checking her cupboard and we discovered the maggots in the oats.”

Tesco have been contacted and are currently investigating the matter.