Maggots found crawling across Nando’s cooked chicken

A CUSTOMER got an unwanted surprise at a Nando’s. Alongside the peri-peri sauce, her dinner was also smothered in something truly disgusting.

WHAT’S your perfect Nando’s night out? Maybe a hot chicken smothered in peri-peri sauce with a side of corn and a few fries.

But what if it was served with a helping of wriggling, crawling, squirming maggots? Maybe not so nice.

That’s the culinary surprise Emy Wamboi says she received last week at the fast food chain’s store in the Westfield shopping centre in Kotara, in Newcastle.

Ms Wamboi has posted some stomach churning footage to Facebook. The video shows that within the glistening chicken, browned to perfection, is a collection of marauding maggots. Slipping and sliding in a maggot mosh pit, it’s enough to put you right off you dinner.

“People should be careful on what they eat. We went to Nando’s Kotara and got served chicken with maggots,” wrote Ms Wamboi.

Maggot infested chicken at Nando's Westfield Kotara Newcastle

Unwanted fly larvae seem to be a regular addition to people’s meal at the moment. Just last week, a customer at a Sydney pub complained when they found their steak flecked with crawlies.

In a response, Nando’s said it had given the customer and apology and offered a refund. They also said they had investigated the incident and were satisfied there was no risk to other customers.

That didn’t satisfy some online who said the company should be reported to the health authorities.

This Nando's chicken is definitely maggot free.

But in a statement to news.com.au, Nando’s insisted the quality of its fare should not be judged by one not so finger licken’ chicken.

“Nando’s has done a thorough investigation of this issue and found the Kotara restaurant has followed all the correct cooking and hygiene procedures,” a spokeswoman said.

“Our chicken is made to order and a fly or maggots could not have survived the cooking process which includes placing the chicken on a grill with an operating surface temperature of over 350 degrees.”

The company said it was likely a fly landed just before serving leading to the maggot manifestation.

“As the restaurant is open to the environment and the maggots were found on the skin of the chicken, we believe this incident is the result of an airborne fly landing on the chicken in the short period of time between when it was plated and subsequently discovered by the customer at her table.”

As bizarre as it might sound that maggots could appear between cooking and serving, in rare cases it can happen with the hot temperatures turbo charging the critters’ life cycle.

It’s likely the same thing happened earlier this month at the pub in Sydney.

Stella Kim said she recoiled in horror when she found larvae crawling over a steak served at North Ryde’s Ranch Hotel.

“(I) just couldn’t believe if this was real. It was horrible, unbelievable,” Ms Kim told news.com.au.

“Maggots were crawling over and there were a lot of them. It was like a rotten carcass.”

The Ranch said it served 262 steaks that day but just one was returned due to its unwanted ingredient.

“Our investigation concluded that the incident was due to blowfly larva laid after the meal was cooked, as it is not possible for lava to survive the cooking process.”

A similar incident occurred in July to a family who cooked up a steak bought from a Melbourne Aldi supermarket.

The family said the meat had weeks left before its use by date and had only been stored in the fridge before barbecuing.

Skye Blackburn, an independent entomologist and food scientist engaged by Aldi, examined the video of the contaminated meat supplied by the family and said the eggs were likely to have been laid post cooking.

“Heat allows eggs the potential to hatch within minutes of being laid. Due to higher than average temperatures we’re experiencing at the moment, it is common for the life cycle of insects to occur more quickly.”

Nando’s said it had reported themselves to the health authority.