Tesco shopper 'nearly swallows bee' after making shocking discovery in punnet of supermarket raspberries

Buzzed off: Shopper Lucy Allen has complained to Tesco after making the astonishing discovery
Lucy Allen
Hatty Collier7 March 2016

A Tesco customer has told of the shocking moment she almost ate a live bee stowed inside her punnet of supermarket raspberries.

Lucy Allen, 30, was snacking on the fruits bought at a Tesco Express in Tulse Hill, south London, as she decorated a dessert at her friend’s house.

But after picking one of the “sweet and plump” raspberries to put in her mouth, she spotted the hairy legs of a bee poking out from inside the summer fruit.

Ms Allen told the Standard: “When I went to make the dessert, I ate a couple. I was putting them onto a chocolate mousse.

“I picked one up, but then I saw the back end of an insect inside it. I was very close to eating it.

“It gave me a shock.

“We poked it with the end of a pen and it started moving.”

Ms Allen and her friend Jennie Bellfield managed to trap the creature in a jar over concerns it could be carrying bacteria and disease because the raspberries had been imported from Morocco.

Shocked: Lucy Allen with her friend Jennie Bellfield, who made the discovery
Lucy Allen

She added: “You just don’t know about these things. If you think about when you come through customs on a flight, you are not allowed to bring any fruit and this is why.

“I certainly wouldn’t have liked to have been stung by it.”

Fears: Ms Allen moved the bee into a tupperware container
Lucy Allen

Ms Allen, who lives in Peckham, complained to Tesco customer services over the phone and on Twitter but felt they were unhelpful.

“I was a bit surprised at their lack of interest. They just didn’t seem as concerned as I am,” she said.

“They asked me to package up the specimen and take it back to store, a real inconvenience to be honest. I don’t live close to the store and as they are a huge organisation with a huge fleet of delivery vans I’d have thought the least they could do is collect it.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “We have extremely high standards for the products we put on our shelves and work hard to inspect our fruit carefully.

“Due to the time of year, this product has been sourced from outside the UK so it is not immediately clear how this may have happened.

“We have asked Ms Allen to return the raspberries so we can investigate with our supplier.”

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