Jetstar's mile-high maggot shocker

The meal that Serena Chan was served on a Jetstar flight from Singapore to Perth. Photo / Supplied

A woman found a beetle larva in her Jetstar in-flight meal - and was told to lodge a complaint online.

Serena Chen tucked into her seafood nasi lemak on her flight home to Australia from Singapore last week, only to be confronted by the dead bug.

The 28-year-old university research assistant alerted crew and asked for her money back. She claims she was told she would have to apply online for a refund and was offered a replacement meal.

After another complaint, she received a refund, but took the problem to the head office of the budget airline.

"I was told I had to wait five to 10 days for a response," she said. "I didn't think that was good enough and emailed them and Jetstar Asia contacted me, wanting me to email the picture."

The airline has withdrawn the meal from its menus and apologised, and an investigation organised.

"Obviously this is an incident which has to do with our caterers," the spokeswoman told the West Australian newspaper.

"It's an isolated case and it's highly unlikely it's a maggot. It's more likely to be a rice worm."

Professor Ian Dadour, director of the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Western Australia, confirmed the bug was a beetle larva, although he could not be sure of the species.

"If it was packaged in the food it would be dead and would have come from the vegetable matter. It could have been in the rice, too." he told the West Australian.

"It's probably the best bit of protein in that meal."