Woman vows to go veggie after horror of finding an entire foot inside Lidl roast chicken

A woman has vowed to ditch meat completely after discovering an entire chicken foot inside her Lidl roast dinner.

Mercedes Checkley, 25, bought a seasoned bid from the supermarket for £3.99 on Sunday (6 February) and put it in the over for a roast dinner for herself and three friends.

When she took it out of the oven an hour and 45 minutes later, she discovered an entire chicken foot was hiding inside the animal’s body.

The horror of the discovery left her feeling faint and caused her to vomit.

Ms Checkley, who works as a team leader in a care home and lives in Bedford, has said the incident has left her with a fear of meat and she has vowed to never eat it again.

She said: “My housemate heard me making a weird noise and she knew something was wrong.

"I think it was the shock. At first, it was disbelief and almost funny because I was shocked but then reality set in and I went very faint and was physically sick.

"I haven’t eaten since and I’m now really put off meat.

"I am gutted because a roast dinner is my favourite meal and one of my safe meals as I have bowel disease so this incident has created a fear of meat and I’m quite limited to what I can eat as a result."

‘I felt so faint’

The 25 year old had finished a shift at work and offered to cook a roast dinner for her housemate Amy, her boyfriend and his best friend.

She bought all of the ingredients for the meal at her local Aldi and put the roast chicken straight into the oven still in the bag, as per the instructions, so she failed to notice the foot until the meat was ready to carve.

Since the shock of finding the foot and almost fainting in her kitchen, Ms Checkley said she has barely been able to eat.

She said: "The others ate the vegetables, roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire puddings that I’d made to go with the chicken.

"I had a few parsnips and some cauliflower cheese but that was all I could stomach as I felt physically unwell.

"My body was shaky and I felt so faint that I couldn’t stomach eating after being sick but had to force myself to eat a few mouthfuls as I hadn’t eaten all day.

"I will absolutely never eat meat again. Every time I’ve been in my kitchen since it happened, I gag."

She has since issued a formal complaint to Lidl and the supermarket has now contacted the supplier of the chicken.

Ms Checkley has been told she should receive a response in the next 10 days.

A spokesperson for Lidl said: "We were very sorry to hear of this matter, as it is never our intention for a customer to be dissatisfied in any way.

"We work very closely with our suppliers to ensure that the fresh meat we offer is of the highest possible quality for our customers.

"We were therefore disappointed that our expected high standards have not been met on this occasion.

"Following contact with our customer services team, the matter was escalated to our Quality Assurance department and our supplier to be fully investigated.

"We are in direct contact with the customer and will update them on the final outcome."

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