Mother’s anger after nail in chicken shock

MELANIE Maher and son Brandon Duffy (4) holding up the nail

A MOTHER-OF-TWO said she was was left horrified after finding a 2in rusty nail in a piece of chicken.

Melanie Maher (28), from Shaw Road, Royton, said she found the item when biting into a chicken goujon during the family dinner.

She bought the breaded chicken pieces, produced by the Cheshire-based Meadow Vale company, for her four-year-old son Brandon.

Now Ms Maher is demanding action and the product be recalled.

She said: “We’d already eaten most of the goujons in the bag and when I put the last piece in my mouth, I felt something hit my tooth.

“I thought it was a bone at first but when I took it out, it was a black nail.”

Ms Maher claims she was struck down by food poisoning that evening.

She reported the matter to the local Environmental Health department and contacted Meadow Vale.

Ms Maher said she was told by the company that the nail would not have passed their metal detectors without being noticed and was offered £50 as a gesture of goodwill.

Ms Maher, who still has the nail, is now looking into taking the matter to Oldham County Court.

She said: “They are not accepting liability and I want them to do more.

“It has come from their factory and ended up here.

“My main worry is that we bought the food for our four-year-old son to eat.”

A representative from Meadow Vale said they would not be recalling the product.

He said: “We take these allegations very seriously. An investigation is ongoing but it is difficult for us to advance because we can’t get the product back or the nail for analysis.

“We would like to find out how the alleged nail made it into the food chain, whether pre, during or post production.

“We metal detect on more than one occasion, at least hourly, and have sufficient records to support that.

“The company will be reviewing procedures and following this through.”