Rick finds blade in mushrooms

WHEN Bundamba resident Rick Nelson sat down for dinner, the last thing he expected to find in his mushrooms was a piece of bandsaw.

Bundamba resident Rick Nelson claims he found a piece of blade in mushrooms he bought from Booval Aldi after nearly swallowing it. Picture: Sarah Harvey

WHEN Bundamba resident Rick Nelson sat down for dinner, the last thing he expected to find in his mushrooms was a piece of bandsaw.

During a hearty dinner of steak and mushrooms last week, Mr Nelson felt a stabbing pain in the roof of his mouth.

In there, he found a centimetre long piece of serrated blade.

Mr Nelson blames the packet of pre-cut mushrooms he bought from Booval Aldi, having cut the steak himself.

"I'll be dicing my own vegies from now on," he said.

Mr Nelson, who lives with his pensioner mother Annette, said he didn't know if he had swallowed any other pieces of the blade.

"If it's smashed, where is the rest of it?" he asked.

Mrs Nelson who was thanking her lucky stars she doesn't eat mushrooms, said she went back to the store, only to be fobbed off.

"They didn't even take my name," she said.

"It's unacceptable, something like that could kill you."

Aldi has since contacted the Nelsons and apologised for the incident.

Mrs Nelson, a former meatworks employee, said the blade wasn't one used by butchers.

"That's not a meat blade," she said.

"I worked at the meatworks; I know what they look like."

With the Nelsons often hosting friends for dinner, Annette said she was thankful they didn't use the mushrooms then.

A spokesperson for Aldi said the company took the incident very seriously.

"We are currently investigating the incident and can't comment any further at this stage, other than to say that we take the quality of our products very seriously and the safety of our customers is our top priority," she said.

The spokeswoman said Aldi had apologised to the Nelsons and was working to rectify the situation.

"We can confirm receipt of a foreign object report found in a sliced mushroom product.

"Together with the supplier we have immediately commenced an investigation.

"We can confirm this is an isolated incident.

"We have apologised to the customer and continue to liaise with them.

"We can confirm no batch code of this product is available in any Aldi store."

Originally published as Rick finds blade in mushrooms