Need advice on maggots found on Don Sliced Ham purchased through Coles

LProudShopper on 02/12/2020 - 14:02
Last edited 02/12/2020 - 16:44

We bought a Don Sliced Ham from Coles on the 16-Nov evening and placed in the fridge. On the 17-Nov at 9am we opened it and rolled and presented it on a platter with some cheese and bread for a birthday party. Four individuals ate the ham at around 10am, 5th person noticed some maggots on the ham. We checked and found maggots on the inside of the remaining uneaten rolled ham, and people felt sick thinking about it. We took photos and recorded a video.

We talked to Coles who were really worried about the product, rather than the wellbeing of the individuals, however because it is a 3rd party product, just wanted to refund it. Then we spoke to Don themselves, but they said that nothing was wrong with their production line, unless the packaging was compromised.

So, who is responsible for anthing that may have left the factory and on to the shelves at Coles if the packaging got damaged? It could be breached anytime/anywhere, including during transporation.

We were really embarassed and had to answer to the parents of these three individuals. The first person who ate it was our own daughter. One of the parents took the child to the doctor. I don't want anything for ourselves, but would like someone to contact the four individuals and apologise to them.

Any health and safety dept that should be alerted?

Do you know any media who would like to cover this story? The treatment from Don is very much "sorry but we are not at fault", then who is responsible? It can't be the consumer.

https://youtu.be/Pfhe84w0XwQ
https://photos.app.goo.gl/E1N63sNXUKHLQYGGA
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GUkrm595wbPReMDv7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hxoQEmz897DLCEwR7

Regards

Food & Grocery

Related Stores

Coles
Coles

Comments

  • ShannonN on 02/12/2020 - 14:10
    +58

    Call Tracey Grimshaw

    • mskeggs on 02/12/2020 - 14:18
      +18

      This could be Mike Moore or Marty Di Stasio territory!

      • jace88 on 04/12/2020 - 10:36
        +1

        Nah there are bigger fish to try.

    • Scrooge McDuck on 03/12/2020 - 02:20
      +45

      Call Tracey Grimshaw

      I don't imagine she'll be too sympathetic to people who eat her kin.

      • [Deactivated] on 03/12/2020 - 14:31
        +1

        This is the most underrated comment of the century

    • dbun1 on 05/12/2020 - 17:55

      She’d eat all the evidence

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 02/12/2020 - 14:11
    +28

    My advice is - Dont eat it

  • kerfuffle on 02/12/2020 - 14:11
    +49

    16-Dec evening and placed in the fridge. On the 17-Dec

    But today is only the 2nd of December?

    • mskeggs on 02/12/2020 - 14:14
      +29

      You can't handle the truth!
      kerfuffle's laser like cross examination causes the witness to crack.

    • pyramid on 02/12/2020 - 14:17
      +5

      May be year 2019

    • boomramada on 02/12/2020 - 14:18
      +6

      OP probably bought it last year for COVID prep and left in the freezer for almost year.

      • pyramid on 02/12/2020 - 14:20

        Then OP has to apologize to those four individuals. Case closed.

    • ProudShopper on 02/12/2020 - 15:36
      +5

      Sorry purchase on the 16-Nov

      • iDroid on 02/12/2020 - 20:33
        +7

        I'd say they had to have got onto the meat after purchase, they're tiny and young (a few minutes/hours old at most).

      • Scrooge McDuck on 03/12/2020 - 02:22

        Sorry purchase on the 16-Nov

        But what year!?

        • boozler on 03/12/2020 - 11:54
          +3

          One of the effect of time travel, you forget what year it is.

      • Antikythera on 05/12/2020 - 02:14

        i wouldn't serve ham on 17th Dec that has been in the fridge from 16th Nov.

    • DarthAntz on 02/12/2020 - 15:42
      +1

      It's about to happen…

    • SF3 on 03/12/2020 - 23:05

      the maggots wrote it.

    • kaleidoscope on 05/12/2020 - 06:57

      this message came from future, so we can stop buying this product on days to come. what a legend op!

  • pharkurnell on 02/12/2020 - 14:12
    +4

    Wouldnt it be - once <shop> has it from Don, it may depend on how it was treated by <Store>. Not sure Don can control what happens once it leaves their doors can they?

    • thanatos350 on 03/12/2020 - 12:49
      +6

      Once it enters the store, and lands on the shelves, it also depends on what other customers do with the product.

      If food in the deli (that are basically out in the open) can evade being infested by maggots, I kinda doubt the likelihood of maggots somehow entering a sealed package.

      At the end of the day, shit happens. Maggots are natural and you're eating a natural product. If one person out of the 22 million in the country reports maggots in their ham, then you've got to concede that quality control is pretty good.

  • pyramid on 02/12/2020 - 14:14
    +23

    but would like someone to contact the four individuals and apologise to them.

    Can you not do that ?

  • mskeggs on 02/12/2020 - 14:16
    +18

    How can you pick up a slice of ham to roll it and not see maggots on it? Four times or more!
    For what it is worth, I don't think they will be harmful in any way.

    • mskeggs on 02/12/2020 - 14:25
      +16

      The treatment from Don is very much "sorry but we are not at fault", then who is responsible? It can't be the consumer.

      Don will say that they pack the ham in packaging that excludes oxygen. Even if a fly had laid an egg during their processing, it could not survive to grow into a maggot.
      When the package is opened, oxygen enters, and in this case, presumably a fly. It then lays an egg.
      Since it takes a couple of days for an egg to grow into a maggot, and your timeline says you bought then consumed the next day, it sounds like the package might have been opened at the supermarket.

      Did you buy an already opened package?

      It can't be the consumer.

      Well, it could be.

      • ProudShopper on 02/12/2020 - 15:47
        +1

        Yes, Don said exactly what you said. I don't doubt the sience. They did all they could before leaving the processing.

        I did what I could do in making sure that it is refrigerated until use the following day. So somwhere in between lies the problem. Who is responsible for that part? Coles? or Dom?

        • Scrooge McDuck on 03/12/2020 - 15:43
          +7

          I don't doubt the sience.

          I doubt the spelling.

        • kriddy on 03/12/2020 - 21:49
          +1

          I have worked at Don in my early days and can confirm I’ve witnessed them cutting maggots off green meat to mix in with fresh product to make it go further. Not to mention the different types of cleaning chemicals that get overused throughout production.

          • MrFrugalSpend on 03/12/2020 - 22:46

            @kriddy: Wow - totally should be reported to health authorities if that's still happening

      • Jackson on 03/12/2020 - 10:59
        +4

        Don is spewing BS. I picked up some of this from Woolies a couple of weeks ago:

        https://www.dorsogna.com.au/catalogue/product/flame-roasted-…

        and when I got to the checkout it didn't scan, when I re-swiped it I noticed the ham had good totally off. I told the checkout dude and then went back to see if the other ones were they same. They weren't it was just the one. The package was still watertight by the looks of things (but may not have been completely air tight) and there was still a way to go on the date. Either way, it definitely can be the case that stuff goes off before it reaches the consumer.

        On a side note, that ham is nothing special, better off getting the regular triple smoked

      • gromit on 03/12/2020 - 11:00

        can take as little as 12 hours for a fly egg to hatch into a maggot. also possible for live maggots to be deposited on it. So completely possible it happened after the package got home and was opened.

        • [Deactivated] on 05/12/2020 - 03:37
          +3

          I can confirm this from first hand experience LOL. I was cooking a steak once and saw a blowfly. I tried to wave it off without knocking it into the pan but it managed to land on the steak, bent itself to touch the steak surface, and pumped several maggots out before flying off again. It touched the steak for 2-3 seconds.

          (So this ham could have easily and very quickly had maggots on it that were nothing to do with the supermarket, packaging, etc.)

    • ProudShopper on 02/12/2020 - 15:37
      +5

      May not be harmful, but not something you want to present at a birthday party.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 03/12/2020 - 02:24
        +6

        On the bright side, those who attended will remember it forever!

      • Kangal on 04/12/2020 - 14:00

        Hey OP, can you please forward this thread to your party attendees? I really think they'll be interested in the public opinion, plus I'm sure many are going to get a good kick/laugh out of some comments.

  • slow on 02/12/2020 - 14:18
    +4

    Should have served some of this with it

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu

  • c64 on 02/12/2020 - 14:18
    +4

    bargin! bonus protein!

    • perfeksionitst on 03/12/2020 - 13:25
      +2

      No net gain due to the law of conservation of protein.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 03/12/2020 - 15:40

        Broscience.

        • Kangal on 04/12/2020 - 13:55

          If anything, there's a (slight) net LOSS of digestible/quality protein.

          • Krankite on 04/12/2020 - 19:44

            @Kangal: Is there though? There may be an increase we need to see the science on whether pork or maggot is easier digested by people.

            • Kangal on 04/12/2020 - 20:11

              @Krankite: Well, think about it.
              The maggots cannot turn pork into fly, they need to digest it themselves which requires them using enzymes and energy to break it down, then other enzymes and energy to turn it into the fly-products. So there should be a net loss.

              Same concept applies for all molecules. It always easier to break down complex structures which have high potential and order but low entropy. So we shouldn't literally waste elements like some nuclear, into a lowly energy form… there likely are other research/health use cases that require it, knowing it is a finite material. That's why its also unwise to do cremation. It makes more sense to recycle human carcasses back into nature, so that our star-dust can go forward in making new humans (rather than burning-off, which joins the heat of the planet as that heat evaporates into space).

              • Krankite on 04/12/2020 - 20:24

                @Kangal: Sure but maggots may be able to convert things which are indigestible to humans into something that is much like a cow can eat grass and we can eat cows but we can't eat grass.

  • Master Bates on 02/12/2020 - 14:20
    +4

    I can't pass comment without seeing the evidence, please upload.

    • pyramid on 02/12/2020 - 14:22
      +3

      We will get you MS paint soon…

      • Kangal on 04/12/2020 - 13:55
        +5

        He removed the photos and video…. smells fishy

  • life is suffering on 02/12/2020 - 14:21
    +1

    what happens to products that people take from one aisle and dump into another. is this what might have happened?

    • mskeggs on 02/12/2020 - 14:27
      +15

      I know at Woolies they can't replace any refrigerated items discarded elsewhere in store.

      Or do you mean OP saw a pack of ham stuffed at the back of the Nutella jars and said "Stuff walking to the fridge aisle, I'll get my ham here!"

      • life is suffering on 02/12/2020 - 14:29
        +1

        lmao. OP ? is this what happen?

      • 87percent on 02/12/2020 - 16:00
        +1

        please tell me it is

      • SlackBladder on 03/12/2020 - 14:37

        Who cares whether it happened like this or not! It DID happen as mskeggs says LOL!!!

    • MrFrugalSpend on 03/12/2020 - 22:51
      -1

      people are talking on here like they think maggots just appear if the meat is not refrigerated…. it needs a fly to lay the eggs… ?

  • Bonbi on 02/12/2020 - 14:28
    +26

    I'm more impressed that this is OP's first post since joining 7 years ago

    • [Deactivated] on 02/12/2020 - 14:36
      +27

      Saw maggots, triggered memory of OzBargain account.

    • SlackBladder on 03/12/2020 - 14:39

      Must have passed more than just a memory, after eating this!

  • life is suffering on 02/12/2020 - 14:30
    +3

    Okay remembered a story - a fly came into my house. I accidentally killed it and its belly burst open. I was like yuck. then a few seconds later tens of maggots came out. it was disgusting

    • 2Cheap2Pay on 02/12/2020 - 14:38
      +18

      username checks out

    • Frank Murphy on 02/12/2020 - 16:24
      +16

      Accidentally killed it? I struggle to kill them intentionally.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 03/12/2020 - 02:26

        Might be a rare intellectually consistent vegan.

      • NatoTomato on 03/12/2020 - 16:22

        preggo flies are slow

      • meong on 04/12/2020 - 14:52

        i use a handheld fly catcher… it's my cat…

    • ireadtermsofuse on 03/12/2020 - 19:59

      Aren’t they usually blowflies that carry maggots? I remember killing one with a fly swatted and dragged it back and a lump of maggots just started squirming.

      • life is suffering on 03/12/2020 - 22:03
        +2

        CRAWLINGGGG IN MYYYY SKINNNNNN

        • mattgt on 04/12/2020 - 10:43
          +1

          These wounds, they will not heal

        • [Deactivated] on 05/12/2020 - 03:42
          +2

          Maggots…. politicians…. the ABC and The Project…. all the have same effect.

    • cameldownunder on 04/12/2020 - 15:42

      Catfood + flies + heat = rubbish bin full of maggots.

  • John Kimble on 02/12/2020 - 14:37
    +14

    We bought a Don Sliced Ham

    That was your mistake.

    https://shop.coles.com.au/a/national/product/don-ham-english…

    Only 73% meat, only 20% Australian.

    Is DON. Is BAD.

    • onetwothreefour on 02/12/2020 - 16:30
      +1

      What type of meat? maggot meat?

      • kiitos on 03/12/2020 - 07:44
        +22

        That's the 20%. Proudly Australian maggots.

    • RiseAndRuin on 03/12/2020 - 22:30

      that 20% must be the water… also, meat is not the same as "Manufactured MeatPork Meat"
      I'd blame the legislation that allows that to be called ham

  • isthatallyougot on 02/12/2020 - 14:51
    +3

    Are you sure you didn't ask for extra protein in the platter ?

    Btw if you opened it as per your sentence "On the 17-Dec at 9am we opened it and rolled and presented it on a platter with some cheese and bread for a birthday party" then its possible that the maggots could have appeared while the food was left uncovered.

    • dirtybigbjelke on 02/12/2020 - 15:07
      +5

      Maggots are the babies of flies. The fly has to land on the ham then deposit the eggs that grow into maggots. They can't appear out of nowhere.

      • Nice one baby on 03/12/2020 - 10:38
        +9

        Not all flys lay eggs. Blow flies lay live maggots.

        • Other on 03/12/2020 - 11:18
          +2

          that is even more disgusting,

        • dirtybigbjelke on 03/12/2020 - 13:50
          +2

          Good to know, Thanks, I think…

      • cameldownunder on 04/12/2020 - 15:43

        Immaculate maggots ?

    • ProudShopper on 02/12/2020 - 15:39
      +1

      opened at 9am and party started at 9.30am… People started eating at 9.45-10am

      Maggots appeared in one hour of opening the package? Is that possible?

      Unless the packaging was already compromised.

      • isthatallyougot on 02/12/2020 - 15:49
        +12

        You said you opened the ham and rolled it. hard to miss seeing maggots when you are rolling it imo.

        Anyways mate , you bought the package, opened it , rolled the ham and then put in on an open platter. I doubt anyone is going to blame Don or Coles unless you had a picture of the package with the maggots in it.

        Time to move on .

      • Dr Prepper on 07/12/2020 - 04:08

        Yes

  • newjerseydamo on 02/12/2020 - 15:01
    +13

    The issue could have occurred anywhere, therefore, the time and cost involved in investigating where it could have occurred, wouldn't be worth the time and cost to replace or refund the item.

    So, in this instance, the offer of a refund is sound.

    It's an unfortunate thing to happen, however it was not intentional, and most likely an accident.

    So why are you acting entitled like the media should report on an item worth a few dollars?

    Apologise to your friends and advise them it was an unfortunate situation and an accident, get the refund, and move on with your life.

    • ProudShopper on 02/12/2020 - 15:42
      +1

      Yes, that is absolutely an option.

      The only thing was how Don acted in their defence. Instead of taking ownership of the issue, they were protective of their products and care less about the wellbeing of the "people". That got me.

      • Luo18740 on 02/12/2020 - 16:04
        +12

        To Don though, the only person that should be relevant is you, their customer. They have apologised to you and I assume offered a refund.

        If you are expecting them to call 3 or 4 other people who have not purchased their product, I don't think that is reasonable.

      • newjerseydamo on 04/12/2020 - 10:01
        +2

        How can they take ownership of an issue they don't know they are the fault of?

        You haven't read what I wrote at all.

  • dirtybigbjelke on 02/12/2020 - 15:06
    +4

    This is an issue for the health department of the council where you bought the Ham from. Call them they have trained officers for this.

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