Shopper finds maggots under chicken pack at Woolworths store - TimesLIVE

A Woolworths customer who found maggots beneath packs of raw chicken at the retailer’s Bel Air store in North Riding, Johannesburg, says his biggest concern was not what he found, but how staff members responded so casually.

John Mawere was shopping at the store on Sunday when he picked up a packet of free-range chicken and noticed what appeared to be maggots underneath it. He then checked another packet, and found the same thing.

Mawere said he alerted a staff member, who then called other employees to look at the problem.

According to Mawere, the staff began removing the maggots, but he felt they were treating the situation too casually.

Mawere told TimesLIVE that he then asked the staff to speak to the store manager, but he was allegedly given a runaround.

He expected the store to immediately treat the discovery as a serious food-safety issue and the affected area to be closed while staff investigated and cleaned it.

“I was really disappointed with the way they handled it. They took it in a casual manner,” he said.

Mawere took photographs and video of what he found and posted them on social media, tagging Woolworths.

He said Woolworths later contacted him and apologised, telling him that an investigation was under way.

Woolworths has since confirmed that independent hygiene experts had been called to the store, all affected products had been removed and a deep clean carried out.

The retailer described the incident as a unique and isolated incident.

It said a full investigation was under way to determine the cause. “The store in question had recently been audited from a hygiene perspective and no anomalies were detected,” it said.

Woolworths said it remained committed to high standards of hygiene and food safety. “We recognise that we have let our customers down on this occasion and sincerely apologise. We are taking every measure to ensure this does not happen again.”

However, Mawere emphasised that for him the incident was more about the staff’s response to the issue than finding maggots in a fridge. He said customers should not have to convince employees that a potential food safety issue deserved urgent attention.

“The measure of an organisation is not that mistakes never happen. Mistakes will always happen. The measure is how an organisation then responds when a mistake happens,” he said.

Mawere said the incident had not made him stop shopping at Woolworths, but he hoped it would lead to better customer service and a stronger response to food safety concerns. “I take this seriously. I don’t like it when customers are ignored when it comes to issues raised in the store.”

He said he was not looking for compensation and suggested that if Woolworths wanted to do something after the incident, it should consider helping people who were less privileged.

Woolworths said the incident had triggered a full investigation and that it was taking steps to prevent a recurrence.