Nuts and bolts, cockroaches, live flies, mouse droppings and... a tarantula. News Shopper reveals the 9 most bizarre and gruesome discoveries made by food shoppers on patch.

1. A family ended up vomiting in the toilet after discovering a cockroach lurking in their pitta bread.

News Shopper: 'Plumstead kebab cockroach made my family physically sick'

Westley Powell was at home with his wife and mum when they ordered three kebabs from the Surprise takeaway, Plumstead High Street.

Mr Powell had chomped through most of his doner before he made a shocking discovery - a dead bug hidden beneath the last two slices of meat.

The 22-year-old said: "I'd pretty much finished but something told me to look more carefully at my food and there it was - a dead cockroach.

"To be quite honest with you it made me physically sick.

"My mum looked at it and went to the toilet and started puking up."

News Shopper:

2. Two-and-a-half year out of date bovril was spotted on the shelves of Asda.

Amit Patel took a snap of the chicken-flavoured salty meat extract, which the Bexleyheath Broadway store priced at £2.

He said: "I'd never seen chicken bovril before and the packaging was quite dusty, so it caught my eye.

"I thought: 'let's have a look at the date' and I was quite flabbergasted with what I saw.

"I've got young kids and it could make them really ill."

News Shopper:

3. A man was "horrified" when he found flies buzzing around in the sealed packaging of bread rolls purchased in a local Sainsbury's.

News Shopper: Warren Hill outside the Walter's Yard Sainsbury's.

Warren Hill, 43, from Bromley, said: "Initially I thought it was some cracked black pepper but then, when I moved it closer to my face, I could see it was actually moving.

"You could have knocked me over with a feather. 

"I dropped the packet back onto the work surface and thought 'eugh'.

"Then my mum was like 'I can't believe it, I only bought them yesterday'."

News Shopper:

4. Pizza Hut launched an investigation into allegations a pizza was delivered from its Downham branch with a metal nut and bolt inside the box.

Charity boss Jane Plumb posted a nauseating photo of the nut and bolt atop the pizza, which was also laden with red onions, mushrooms and sliced black olives.

News Shopper:

Ms Plumb, medical charity Group B Strep Support’s chief executive, wrote: "Found a nut and bolt in pizza delivered by Pizza Hut Downham yesterday.

"No comment yet from store."

5. A Dartford pensioner thought she’d had her chips when an eight-and-a-half-inch metal bolt clattered out of her McCain bag onto her cooking tray

Jean Brown said she "almost had a heart attack" when she went to make her dinner and the bolt dropped onto her foot. 

The 85-year-old was bought the chips by one of her daughters from the Co-operative supermarket. 

She said: "I was doing something for my tea, so I got the bag of chips out of the freezer and put it in the tin, but this bolt bounced off it and fell onto my foot. 

"It was such a shock to my system. I thought ‘Blooming hell, what’s this?’

"I nearly had a blooming heart attack."

News Shopper:

6. A woman said she could have been seriously ill after she bought some pastrami from Lidl - only to discover it was two weeks out of date.

Carer Liz Falkingham, 54, was heading home on December 11 when she decided to pop into Lidl in Beckenham High Street.

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She told News Shopper: "Once I'd bought the items I came straight home and, because it was lunch time, I thought I would have something to eat.

"I picked up the pastrami and I thought 'that looks a bit funny'.

"Then when I opened it and picked it up it felt all slimy. It was rank.

"When I looked at the packaging was like 'Oh my God it is two weeks out of date'."

7. A restaurant was fined after serving a salad containing skin and nail from the chef’s finger

A customer was eating at Pizza Express in West Wickham High Street when she bit into something hard and chewy. 

She removed it from her mouth and found something resembling a piece of human skin with part of a nail attached. 

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Pizza Express admitted selling food unfit for human consumption and was fined £7,500. 

8. A mum nearly served pancakes to her son before noticing they were sprinkled with mouse droppings

News Shopper:

Parvin Gazi, 42, said her "world was turned upside down" when she made the grim discovery in a packet of Co-op own brand pancakes, purchased in Hither Green Lane. 

She added: "My son is a pancake lover. He’s a chubby bubby who loves his pancakes.

"But it’s definitely put me off. There’s no way I’m going to keep cooking my children pancakes, even M&S or anywhere else now. 

"I wouldn’t trust them."

News Shopper:

9. A Sydenham man got the shock of his life when he came face-to-face with a tarantula while shopping for bananas.

Mark Drinkwater was left with his "heart beating through his chest" after browsing the fruit and veg section in Lidl supermarket.

The 42-year-old said: "I went to the fruit and vegetable area and picked up some bananas.

"I started to pick them apart and then I realised there was a tarantula hanging from the side of the bananas.

"It was the size of the palm of my hand. It was hairy. 

"Later I could feel my heart beating through my chest.

"I decided not to buy the bananas."