A mum-of-two was "revolted" when her daughter found what appeared to be a LIZARD head in her vegan bolognese sauce.

Polly Wheaton, 47, popped out to Lidl to buy the ingredients for a vegan bolognese for her twin daughters Isabelle and Megan, 20.

But as Isabelle got to the final few mouthfuls on her plate, she was horrified to find what looked like the scaly head of the reptile in her food.

The family think it came from a jar of sauce or tin of tomatoes from the supermarket.

Nail technician Polly, from Shoebury, said: "It was traumatising - my daughter still can't eat properly after this.

"It's not about being vegan - nobody wants to find that in their food, whether they eat meat or not. But it did make it all the more revolting for her.

Echo:

"I feel at the very least that this product should have been recalled. The fact that we found an exotic animal in our food in the middle of a global pandemic is shocking.

"But I haven't had so much as a courtesy call from Lidl to apologise.

"I've had to constantly chase them over the last six weeks, and all they've told me is that their complaints team is still looking into it.

"I think this should take precedence over someone who has complained about a bad can of baked beans or something."

Polly said the suspected lizard's head was about the size of her thumbnail - which is why she had not seen it when she was pouring the ingredients into her sauce.

She found it on May 27.

She said: "I don't usually shop at Lidl - during the lockdown, I've just found it to be the most convenient and the most quiet supermarket.

"But I certainly won't be shopping there again."

A spokesperson for the German supermarket said: "We were very sorry to hear of this matter and would like to sincerely apologise for any distress that this may have caused.

"Following the customer's initial enquiry the case was immediately raised to our Quality Assurance team who launched a thorough investigation with our suppliers.

"At Lidl, we pride ourselves on having thorough procedures in place to ensure that our products are of the highest possible quality for our customers.

"We are, therefore, disappointed that these expected high standards have not been met on this occasion.

"We are keeping the customer updated on the progress of this investigation, and upon its conclusion will share any results directly."