Woman surprised that fishcakes had added baby birds

A woman found two baby birds inside frozen fishcakes she bought from Aldi. Teacher Rochelle Lainé, 27, couldn't believe eyes when she spotted a whole chick complete with wings and a beak sticking out of a fishcake she had picked up from the store in Seaham, County Durham. She could also clearly see a wing and leg protruding from the other fishcake in the two-pack she had bought for £1.49 to share with her partner Robert Charlton. Miss Laine said: "I was getting tea ready and took the foil off one of the fishcakes and noticed that there was an animal inside one of them.



"It had feathers, wings and a beak. It was obviously a chick. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was a leg and a wing coming out of the other fishcake as well. It was bizarre. At first Robert told me not to be stupid, and said it must be a bit of fish on the top, but then he had a closer look and realised there were actually dead birds inside the food we had been about to cook." Aldi have apologised to Miss Laine and said they have recalled the product, made in a UK factory, from their stores. Miss Laine and Mr Charlton, 28, contacted the supermarket straight after their find on Wednesday evening and were called by customer care on Thursday morning.

But how the birds came to be inside the fishcakes remains a mystery. Miss Laine who lives in Seaham with Robert and their 20-week-old baby Mason, said: "They apologised and asked me to take the fishcakes back to the store. They offered to send a courier. They were obviously keen to get their hands on them. I asked if the rest of the packets would be removed and they said they wanted to investigate first. I did not want to take them straight away because I was worried they would get destroyed. I sent Aldi pictures and will drop the fishcakes off later. I will never shop at Aldi again. I have shopped there for years, but I won't be going back.



"I couldn't bring myself to eat any of the rest of the food I had bought. Me and Robert just had some very plain pasta for tea instead. We couldn't face any meat." A spokesperson for Aldi said: "We are looking into this as a matter of urgency and expect to receive the product from the customer today so that we can carry out a full investigation and analysis. We have apologised to our customer and are keeping her up-to-date with our investigation. The product was discontinued last year so only limited stocks are currently available in a small number of stores. As a precaution, we are removing all remaining stock from sale. The product was purchased from a UK supplier to a number of major UK retailers, whose accredited UK factory only produces fish and seafood."