Cockroach for breakfast 'just gross'

The cockroach Ariana Lee found in her tinned boysenberries. Photo / APN

Eleven-year-old Ariana Lee was disgusted to find a cockroach in her breakfast boysenberries.

"I was very shocked, it was just gross."

The Rotorua girl and her family were having cereal and boysenberries for breakfast on Wednesday when they made the stomach-turning discovery.

Ariana's mother, Zarnia Lee, said her husband, Jymel Webber, who is visually impaired, was the first to open the tin of Pams boysenberries in syrup and eat from it. Her son Taine, 11, and daughter Tayla, 9, also ate some and when Ariana emptied the last of them from the tin into her cereal, she noticed something black fall into her bowl.

When she looked closer, she realised it was a cockroach and screamed for her mother.

"The cockroach was pretty purple, I could tell it had been in there a while," Mrs Lee said.

"My other two kids were saying they felt sick because they had already eaten their boysenberries. It was a concern for [my husband] as he wouldn't have realised whether it was a boysenberry or a cockroach he was eating."

Mrs Lee rang Pams' customer service hotline and gave the details of her complaint. She received a letter of apology from Pams and two $10 vouchers for Pak'N Save.

Foodstuffs (NZ) managing director Tony Carter said the company was "very disappointed".

"Our supplier Heinz Wattie's has advised us that the most likely opportunity for an insect to be introduced is at the field stage with the harvesting of the berries."

- APN News & Media