A CUSTOMER at a fast food restaurant was given a nasty surprise when he opened the burger he had been munching on, only to discover a caterpillar was lying inside. Garth Van Ballegooyen, 32, had bought an M burger from McDonald s on Stevenage Leisure Park

A CUSTOMER at a fast food restaurant was given a nasty surprise when he opened the burger he had been munching on, only to discover a caterpillar was lying inside.

Garth Van Ballegooyen, 32, had bought an M burger from McDonald's on Stevenage Leisure Park on Sunday when he made the stomach-churning discovery.

His wife, Shereen, 31, who had also bought an M burger from the restaurant, said: "I had been moaning because the lettuce was brown, and I had taken mine off the burger. Garth took one bite of his burger and opened it to also take the lettuce off, and that's when he saw the caterpillar. It was a good two to three centimetres long and was dead.

"I actually started feeling sick - I can't handle things like that - and my husband wasn't impressed at all.

"Thank goodness he bit from the other end of the burger otherwise he would have eaten the caterpillar, because it was on the edge."

Mr Van Ballegooyen returned the beef burger to restaurant staff and was immediately given a full refund. He was also offered a free burger, which he declined. "We're completely put off now," explained Mrs Van Ballegooyen. "The lettuce was obviously old, because it was so brown, and it wasn't washed either."

A spokesman for McDonald's said: "We are very sorry we didn't live up to our usual high quality standards.

"Our strict quality control procedures include thorough washing of our lettuce as well as visual quality check, and we offer our sincere apologies for this isolated incident.