A mother was horrified when she served up a family meal of roast chicken to find maggots inside.

Tracey Carter, 37, had spent all afternoon cooking the meal for her three children and one of their friends but the youngsters were all physically sick after spotting the bugs.

The fresh £3.99 chicken had been bought from Somerfield in Storrington earlier the same day but it was not until the meal had been served on to plates that Mrs Carter scooped out the stuffing from the carcass and saw the dead maggots.

The mother-of-three screamed for the children to stop eating and immediately took away their plates before calling the store.

Mrs Carter then drove from her Cousins Way home in Pulborough back to Somerfield in the neighbouring village and demanded to see management.

She was given a triple refund.

Mrs Carter said: "All the children were sick when they saw the maggots and it could have been worse - they could have eaten them.

"I bought the supposedly fresh chicken in the morning and spent most of the day cooking it.

"I served it up but when I went back to get the stuffing I saw two dead maggots in the carcass.

"Everyone else was eating. I screamed for them to stop and took away their plates before phoning the store where I was put on to three different people before going back to the shop.

"They said it was not their policy to take stock off the shelf but I chased a member of staff to the fridge department and eventually the last chicken was taken off display.

"I was absolutely disgusted and felt really sick. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I will never set foot in Somerfield again."

A spokeswoman for Somerfield said: "We are very disturbed to hear about what has happened.

"We have taken all the rest of the chickens of the shelf and we certainly believe it to be a one-off incident.

"A thorough investigation will now take place with our supplier to find out what happened in this incident and we need to know how the maggots got there.

"We apologise to the customer and understand this is not a nice thing to happen to anyone. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused."

It is not the first time animals and insects have been found in food in Sussex.

In September 1999, Aaron St Clair of Brighton found a live insect crawling around inside a Silver Spoon bag of sugar bought at Asda in Crowhurst Road, Hollingbury.

In March this year, Lucy Marshman of Ferring found a dead mouse in a punnet of kiwi fruit bought from Tesco in Durrington.