A woman says she has been "put off Subway for life" after her nephew chewed on what she believed to be a chicken claw in his Meatball Marinara.
Lauren Eastwood, 26, treated her nephew Luke to lunch at one of the Meadowhall shopping centre branches of Subway in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, at the end of July - but claims their meal was ruined by a grisly discovery.
The sales assistant was out for lunch with her nephew Luke, 12, and her mum Linda Catlow, 69. Lauren claims her nephew bit into a 'really hard' object in his meatball sub, which he handed over to her.
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Lauren said as she pulled away other bits of food, she was left holding what appeared to be a chicken claw, and desperately tried to remain calm so as not to upset already 'grossed out' Luke.
Lauren, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, said: "At first, I couldn't tell what it was but once I'd pulled all the food away, it was definitely a claw.
"I couldn't eat anything else all day. I felt sick. It's put me off Subway in the future. I'm never going there again.
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"After closer inspection and removing the soft food from around the item we were horrified to find that it was actually an animal claw.
"My nephew was grossed out. We didn't want to tell him what it was and traumatise him but once we took him home and we talked about it, it was definitely a claw.
"My poor nephew is totally shaken from the experience as you do not expect these things to happen and he could have quite easily choked on the animal remains."
Luke had initially pulled the unknown object out of his mouth and presumed it might be hard cheese.
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But his aunt Lauren struggled to hide her disgust as she uncovered what she claims was an 'animal claw'.
Lauren's mum Linda approached the restaurant staff to show them their discovery and complain. But Lauren claims a Subway employee took the unidentified item out of Linda's hand and immediately threw it in the bin.
Lauren said: "My mum went to tell them and the member of staff was like 'no, that shouldn't be in the sandwich' then threw it in the bin.
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"I was like 'how can that get in a beef meatball?'. I don't understand.
After being contacted for comment, Subway claims they have 'multiple diligent processes in place' to prevent issues like this arising.
Subway confirmed that the franchisee has 'taken action' to rectify the 'isolated incident'.
A spokesperson for Subway said: "The health and safety of our guests is of paramount importance to Subway and we have multiple diligent processes in place to ensure that our guests are served with only the safest products possible.
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"We understand that the franchisee has taken action to rectify this isolated incident."
Featured Image Credit: KennedyTopics: Food and Drink