25-year-old Mercedes Checkley from Bedford says she’s never going to eat meat again after finding a chopped-off chicken foot inside of a roasted chicken she cooked.
Mercedes bought the already seasoned chicken dinner for £3.99 on Sunday after finishing her shift at work and offered to cook her roommate Amy, her boyfriend, and his good friend a chicken for dinner.
Along with that, she cooked vegetables, roasted potatoes, honey roasted parsnips, pigs in a blanket, cauliflower cheese, and Yorkshire pudding. She said it took her about an hour and 45 minutes to get everything cooked to perfection before she discovered the chicken foot hiding inside the animal’s body.
“I honestly didn’t even process it at first,” She told Metro. “My housemate heard me making a weird noise and she knew something was wrong. I think it was the shock. At first, it was disbelief and [it was] almost funny because I was shocked, but then reality set in and I went very faint and was physically sick. I haven’t eaten since and I’m now really put off meat.”
Mercedes says she’s mainly upset because she’s limited on what she can eat due to having bowel disease and a roast dinner was her favorite safe meal to eat.
“The others ate the vegetables, roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire puddings that I’d made to go with the chicken,” she said. “I had a few parsnips and some cauliflower cheese but that was all I could stomach as I felt physically unwell. My body was shaky and I felt so faint that I couldn’t stomach eating after being sick but had to force myself to eat a few mouthfuls as I hadn’t eaten all day. I will absolutely never eat meat again. Every time I’ve been in my kitchen since it happened, I gag.”
Mercedes said she bought the chicken and all of the ingredients at a local Lidl grocery store and issued a formal complaint with them. The store told her they contacted the supplier of the chicken and will expect a response from them within 10 days.
A spokesperson for Lidl 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 fresh meat we offer is of the highest possible quality for our customers. We were therefore disappointed that our expected high standards have not been met on this occasion. Following contact with our customer services team, the matter was escalated to our Quality Assurance department and our supplier to be fully investigated. We are in direct contact with the customer and will update them on the final outcome.”