Large lizard found in crispy rolls from Giant

A large lizard — still alive — was found in a packet of crispy rolls bought from the Giant hypermarket in the Parkway Parade shopping centre, TODAY has learnt.

This reporter was shown a photo of the lizard in the packet by a source who saw the lizard. Confirming the incident, Giant’s operations director Maheswaran T said the packet of crispy rolls was baked at the hypermarket on Tuesday (Oct 18).

The customer lodged a complaint the following day, and the hypermarket inspected the bakery and the rest of the store immediately. There were no other reports of similar contamination.

Following its inspection, the store’s team concluded that its robust food-safety procedures were strictly followed from the dough’s preparation through to the baking process.

“Hence, there was no food-safety risk to the product while it was within the bakery area,” Mr Maheswaran said, adding that an independent pest control firm also conducted an inspection and reported no evidence of infestation in the bakery.

He added that its initial investigation had been “inconclusive” because the validity and cause of how, when and where the contamination of the product occurred could not be ascertained.

The store discarded the batch of bakery items in question and took steps to further strengthen its food-safety measures to ensure “there will be no lapse”, Mr Maheswaran said.

The customer was given a refund on the item, and the store made other efforts to compensate her for the incident, he added.

But the complainant, whose identity is unknown, did not leave a phone number and the team was unable to reach her to provide updates.

Added Mr Maheswaran: “Our food-safety team will continue to work closely with the store operations (team) to uphold (our) commitment to quality and freshness.”