An Auckland mother has been left feeling "sick to her stomach" after she discovered a dead bug in a jar of Watties baby food. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland mother has been left feeling "sick to her stomach" after she discovered a dead bug in a jar of Watties baby food. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland mother has been left feeling "sick to her stomach" after she discovered a dead bug in a jar of Wattie's baby food.
Elesha McHugh was feeding her 6-month-old baby son his stage two Wattie's pasta, vegetables and beef baby food when she noticed a suspicious object in thejar.
McHugh told the Herald she was less than a quarter of the way through the jar when she made the discovery last Wednesday.
"I was starting to feed him when I noticed something black in the jar. I was like 'surely it's not a bug'. Then I thought maybe it was a piece of the roast vegetable.
"I sent a photo to my partner and my mum and they both said it was a bug. After realising what it was I stopped feeding him and it freaked me out."
This is the bug that McHugh found in a jar of Watties baby food. Photo / Supplied
Had McHugh not noticed the dead bug in the jar, she says her baby would have more than likely chewed and swallowed the bug that was mixed in with the baby food.
While the Manukau mother understands mistakes can happen in the processing line, she is concerned that foreign objects can find their way in baby food.
She was worried her son could have choked and stressed that any foreign objects found in baby food is highly dangerous, even more so than for adults.
"I was feeling so sick to my stomach. You just don't expect that type of stuff in baby food.
"I feel pretty disgusted, I felt sick thinking that could have been fed to my son."
"I was feeling so sick to my stomach. You just don't expect that type of stuff in baby food." Photo / Supplied
McHugh was feeding her six-month-old baby boy Watties pasta, vegetable, and beef baby food when she discovered the rogue bug in the jar. Photo / Supplied
Not wanting to completely dismiss Wattie's as a food option for her baby, McHugh decided to give the brand a second chance the next night.
However, she found the potato and carrot in the new serving too hard for her son to eat, which led him to choke.
"It was a thicker consistency and there were square pieces of potato and carrot that he couldn't notice was in his mouth.
"The pieces were so hard there was no way he could have chewed. He properly choked on it. It's one of the scariest things to experience as a parent."
McHugh said she and her partner made their own food for their son, but used Wattie's as a back-up, as recommended by Plunket.
But the two incidents have led to the Manukau mother wanting to warn others of her bad experience with the company.
"I'm not sure if I'll use Wattie's again. The bug experience has put me off.
"That's two incidents where stage 2 baby food could have potentially harmed our baby and we are not okay with it and want to warn other parents about it."
Wattie's responded to McHugh late last week, asking her to send the dead bug to the company for testing.
"We are committed to following up this matter. The consumer can be assured that we investigate thoroughly any and all product complaints fully, but none more so than those involving products for infants and babies," Wattie's told the Herald.
"We will seek to identify the origins of the insect reported by the consumer which is currently being sent to us.
"Our baby food products made and packaged in a world class dedicated facility where the focus is on producing foods to highest quality standards, which includes the elimination of any possible contaminants.
"Matters of this nature are extremely rare. We have thanked the consumer for reporting it, and promised to get back to her with the outcome of our investigation."
