SETTLING down for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit took quite a different turn for an Ipswich grandma – when she found a live maggot wriggling around in a packet of her favourite nibbles.

SETTLING down for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit took quite a different turn for an Ipswich grandma – when she found a live maggot wriggling around in a packet of her favourite nibbles.

Sylvia Woollard, from Fletcher Road, had already eaten one of the Fox's Butter Crunch biscuits and was just about to chomp into another when a movement caught her eye.

Her stomach churned when she realised that there was a live maggot intent on sharing her feast.

The grandmother of 11 said: "It put me right off. I really like my biscuits but it makes you think twice about eating them."

Although a spokesman for Fox's said it was extremely unlikely that the maggot originated with the company, he confirmed that they would be investigating anyway.

He said: "We are respected manufacturers of quality products and food safety and quality are paramount to us.

"We make hundreds of thousands of packets of these a year and have never had any complaints before."

The spokesman also pointed out that the biscuits were probably made in late September or early October last year.

He said that as maggots have a life span of around three weeks it would be "extremely unlikely" for a live maggot to have come from them.

Mrs Woollard, 65, said she had bought the biscuits two weeks earlier from Iceland Stores, in Ipswich, and the packet was one of a number she had bought. But she could not believe it when she saw the wriggling, white maggot on top of one of the biscuits.

She put the packet down and phoned her daughter, Sharon Bardell, and Sharon's partner Alan Forsdick, who live in Reynolds Road.

They took the packet back to Iceland, where they said the staff were extremely helpful about the matter.

Mr Forsdick said: "Luckily she (Sylvia) had opened the packet the wrong way up otherwise when she would not have found it until she got to the bottom.

"The staff were very helpful and offered us the money back but we were not quite sure what to do. We just wanted to highlight what had happened."

A spokeswoman for Iceland said: "Our customers are very important to us and we were concerned to learn that one of them was unhappy with a product purchased from one of our stores. We have spoken to the manufacturer, Fox's Biscuits who are now carrying out a full investigation into the matter.

"We will also stay in close contact with Fox's Biscuits."