Content Of Frozen Chicken Disgusts Publican

This Is Exeter
Feb. 21, 2006

Devon landlady Lyn Gooderham got more than she bargained for when she bought a frozen chicken at a supermarket. The 48-year-old, from Copplestone, near Crediton, was shocked to discover the bird she picked up at an Iceland store in North Devon contained remnants of its last meal, along with entrails and excrement.

Iceland has refunded her the price and promised to investigate how the chicken came to be on sale at the store.

Lyn, who owns the Cross pub in Copplestone, made the grim discovery as she was preparing the chicken as a special roast dinner for a pensioners' lunch club.

Her shock then turned to anger when the supermarket refused to send someone to her home to remove the bird, leaving her to drive it to Iceland's Exeter store in Sidwell Street

She said: "I cut it open and it still had entrails, excrement and undigested corn inside.

"I was absolutely horrified and really disgusted. It has put me off chicken for a long time and my husband said he would turn to beef instead.

"I won't be buying chicken at Iceland any more."

She added: "It was lucky I cut it in half to look or I might not have noticed until someone went to eat it.

"I saw it and thought it was good value as a grade A chicken with no giblets inside.

"I thought I would do a special half-roast with vegetables for the pensioners' club.

"If it had gone on the lunch menu and had been fed to an elderly 90-year-old, I can't imagine what would have happened."

Lyn said that when she phoned to complain, Iceland told her that the chicken could not be collected for a few days, so she returned it to the Exeter branch.

She added: "Surely Iceland has a commitment to customers and picking up something that isn't right is more important than delivering. Are there any more of these are out there?

"I said I couldn't keep it as it wouldn't look very good if a health and safety officer came in and found it in the kitchen."

The Exeter store has now dispatched the chicken to its head office for an investigation into the matter.

Nobody at Iceland headquarters was available to comment.