THE GUARDIAN (London, UK) 31 October 07 Rocket and ribit: The frog salad...

Frogging a dead horse? The salad bag with its resident

There's a new range of bespoke health food on sale at the Roehampton branch of Asda - frog salad.

Julia Phillips got a fright as she prepared lunch for her family when she found a live frog in a sealed bag of the superstore's own brand "wild rocket" salad.

Julia, 49, a receptionist at Wimbledon's Parkside Hospital, was offered just a £10 shopping voucher by Asda to make up for the shock of finding the sizeable amphibean jumping around in her family's food.

She said: "I think it's a bit of an insult really - it's quite a serious thing to find in your food. How does it get through all their stages without anyone noticing it?"

A spokesman for Asda said they would send Julia a £50 voucher, and added that they were "staggered" that the frog got through the system, and got through it alive.

Julia bought the bag of Asda-branded rocket from the Roehampton store on her way home from work at the hospital.

The next day she was preparing lunch for partner Terry Allen and her two grown-up children at their home in Sutton.

She opened the vegetable draw in her fridge to get the rocket, and found the frog staring up at her from the inside of the plastic bag.

The frog is likely to have survived in the sealed bag because of the oxygen produced by the rocket leaves.

Julia added: "I laughed about it, but it's not very nice."

She took the frog salad back to Asda, and amazed staff there photographed it and contacted their head office.

Nearly a month later, Julia received a letter of apology from Asda and the £10 shopping voucher.

The Asda spokesman said: "The rocket is mechanically picked in the UK, then goes on a conveyor belt to be checked over. Then it goes through a two-stage washer and a centrifugal drying machine. Then the bags are packed and weighed. It is incredible."



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