A Mangere man had an unpleasant surprise when he and his friends and family tucked into their porridge on Friday.
Sauniuni 'Sonny' Faatoia bought a 750 gram packet of Pams Rolled Oats from his local dairy, and after preparing it, his brother in-law ate a few spoonfuls before his attention was drawn to some "maggots" floating on top of the milk.
The expiry date wasn't until October 2016.
When he went and looked at the packet, he said there was a moth present, so it’s possible what he is seeing as “maggots” is larvae.
Mr Faatoia said he called the Pams customer service line just before 11am on Friday, but wasn't happy with their response.
Antoinette Laird, Foodstuffs, who own Pams, head of external relations told Newshub “We would like to apologise to the customer that the handling of this complaint was not managed as effectively as it should have been. We do take any complaint regarding the quality of our products very seriously and our main priority is always the safety of our customers and the quality of our products.”
Ms Laird says she believes the oats contained a pantry moth.
“Pantry moths, which are often confused with weevils, are common during the warmer months and while they present a food quality issue, if consumed cause no harm.” She says Foodstuffs take these issues very seriously and have requested Pams conduct a full investigation.
"We take any food quality issue very seriously and while our manufacturer does have a number of quality control steps in place to reduce the incidence of pantry moth, on occasion an incident like this can still occur," she says.
Mr Faatoia is glad no one got sick, and is hoping other families won't have to go through the same experience.
He says his brother-in-law "felt sick thinking about what he just ate and he can't feel like eating anything. He is trying to get over what he ate and saw inside his food."
Pams offered Mr Faatoia a full refund as well as a voucher.
Newshub.
