ALDI UK HAS removed 38,000 packs of frozen mixed vegetables from sale in the UK after a woman claimed she found a dead rat inside one.

However, the “voluntary removal” of the mixed vegetables from sale predominantly affects regions in the south west of England.

UK woman Pat Bateman, aged 60, told The Sun newspaper that she discovered the rodent while preparing lunch for her two-year-old granddaughter.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I pulled it out. It just looked like half a rat. It had fur on it. I showed my husband and because it was frozen we left it out to defrost before taking a second look at it.”

Bateman added that they had eaten almost half of the bag of vegetables before making the discovery.

The Sun is reporting that Bateman complained to her local Aldi store in Cornwall, which promised to investigate the matter and offered her £30 compensation. Bateman then contacted Aldi head office, which raised the compensation offer to £500.

In a statement, Aldi said it removed the items from sale today, adding that it affected predominantly two regions in the south west of England:

Following Mrs Bateman’s complaint, we removed this product from sale to prevent any further issues.

We have suspended all orders from this production site whilst we investigate this matter.

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