A SUPERMARKET customer was ‘disgusted’ after opening her shopping to reveal items had been infested with hundreds of maggots.

Nicola McRoberts, a care assistant from Barrow, was shocked when her weekly home delivery from Tesco arrived with some unexpected guests.

The 44-year-old said the smell of the shopping was ‘horrendous’, prompting her to investigate the stench further.

She said: “When I was putting my shopping away, I noticed the tin of dog food had already been opened.

“And then I nearly threw up - the smell was just disgusting.

“I put some gloves on and saw hundreds of maggots, dead and alive, in the package.”

Mrs McRoberts called Tesco’s Customer Service team who promptly picked up the infested tins and offered her a food coupon.

“At first I was okay with that but then my husband came home and he was furious,” she said.

“He thought I’d been fobbed off with a £10 food voucher.

“This is a bigger issue than my shopping, it’s a health and safety issue.

“The maggots could have been in the rest of my shopping or the delivery van, it could’ve been potentially quite dangerous.”

A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We were sorry to hear about this and apologise to the customer for the inconvenience caused.

"We immediately collected the dog food and offered a full refund to the customer.

"We have very high standards for the products we sell and are investigating how this has happened with our supplier.”