Customer finds Falkirk area superstore's response to metal in meat mishap hard to swallow

The Slamannan resident, who does not want to be named, purchased the £6 item at the Redding superstore at the start of June and put it in the freezer to enjoy at a later date.

Last week she decided to cook it for dinner and unwittingly almost caused a medical emergency.

She said: “I defrosted it and put salt on pepper on one side, then realised the steak was full of fat so I trimmed it off and cooked the steak. My husband was sitting down to eat it when he gagged and pointed to his throat.

"He pulled a metal spike out of his mouth and held it out to me. He could have done some serious damage to his mouth or his throat.”

The customer photographed the metal spike and brought the item and the fillet steak pack back to the Tesco Redding store.

She was given a refund and a £20 Tesco money card to spend in the shop, but it was the lack of explanation for the metal spike being in the meat in the first place which she was more concerned about.

“I got a letter through from Tesco and it says they had looked into the matter and were going to leave it at that,” she said. “They took no responsibility for this and had the cheek to offer me a £20 money card.

"My husband could have done very serious damage to his throat.”

The customer felt Tesco believed she was responsible for the metal spike being in the meat because they were so assured it could not have happened at “their end” of the production process.

The letter Tesco sent the customer stated: “The foreign body – a piece of rusty metal – was retrieved from store and a full thorough investigation was undertaken by

the technical, production and engineering departments.

“The piece of metal is not consistent to any equipment parts used in the unit where beef fillet meat is processed. There were no issues of equipment damages that

could be traced back to the date of production and we haven't received similar complaints.

"Equipment used on site is stainless steel, the metal piece sent to us was not stainless steel, therefore it wouldn't have originated from our site. The piece of metal was

put through all the metal detectors in the unit in three different orientations and in the centre of the metal detector – the least sensitive part of the metal – and was

rejected on all occasions.

"Based on the above findings and the controls in place, we found the complaint to be unjustified. Production was made aware of the complaint.”

This week a Tesco spokesperson told The Falkirk Herald: “We set very high standards of product quality, but anyone who is unhappy with their purchase is welcome to

return it to any store for a full refund.”