A claim that a centipede was found in a meat pie bought from a local supermarket has been referred to the Ministry of Health for an investigation.

The claim was made by Loimata o Apaula Wendt who bought the meat pie from the Apia supermarket last week. Attempts to get a comment from the Ministry of Health about the matter were unsuccessful. 

But the customer who works in Apia said she was startled by the discovery.  She said she bought the pie at 9.30am but she did not eat it until 3pm.  

“We always buy our breakfast from there but on this day we were so busy so I put the meat pie inside the fridge untouched,” she said.

“Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon when our office finally calmed down, I went and got the meat pie and I heat it up in the microwave.

“I brought it out and I took a bite and I was half way through the meat pie when I saw something black inside. I actually thought it was a piece of cabbage, but I was wrong because I looked closely it was a centipede.”

Needless to say, Ms. Wendt said she felt disgusted and immediately lost her appetite. She also criticised the response from the store, accusing them of being unprofessional. 

Contacted for a comment, an official from the supermarket said the matter has been referred to the Ministry of Health. She said hygienic standards are of the utmost important to them because they value the health of customers.

 “We did apologise when they called us,” she said.

The official said they visited the unhappy customer at her workplace but when they arrived officials from the Ministry of Health were already there.

“While we await the investigation, we can only apologise to the customer for what has happened. There is no other word above sorry.”