A supermarket customer has claimed she found a living caterpillar in her meal deal salad.

Jolie Blacktopp, of Gun Meadow Avenue in Knebworth, bought two chicken and bacon pasta salads from the Asda store in Monkswood Way, Stevenage, on Thursday.

She ate one the same day but said she noticed something “wriggling” when she opened her second salad at work on Friday.

She said: “I was checking every mouthful on my fork before I ate it because I hate hearing horror stories of people finding bugs and creepy crawlies in their food.

“I gave it a little stir to mix in some of the mayonnaise and thought I saw a little black thing wriggling in the mess.

“I was absolutely disgusted when I realised it was a caterpillar. I made a bit of a scene in my office.

“It just made me feel so sick – I couldn’t believe it was in there and that I had come so close to actually eating it.”

Jolie has complained to Asda’s head office and was given a full refund for the salads, and told the matter would be investigated.

The incident has also been reported to Hertfordshire’s trading standards team.

A spokesman for Asda said yesterday afternoon: “We set ourselves the highest standards for our products and were investigating this further. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to Ms Blacktopp.”