Phil Hall with the huge locust he bit into (Picture: Chris Barron)

A builder’s coronation chicken sandwiches have been ruined for life after he bit into a live locust that had come from a supermarket salad bag.

Phil Hall, from Hurworth-on-Tees, in County Durham, was on his lunch break and had just started tucking in when he made a stomach-turning discovery.

‘I thought to myself, coronation chicken shouldn’t be that hard and crunchy, and when I took it out of my mouth, I saw it was a great big locust,’ said Phil, who was working on a development at Brompton, in North Yorkshire.

‘It was definitely still alive because it was twitching, and its head was moving. I shouted to the lads “Come and have a look at what I’ve just nearly eaten” and they couldn’t believe their eyes.’

Phil had made the sandwich at home that morning using mixed salad from a bag his wife Karen bought from Sainsbury’s in Darlington four days earlier.

The locust had survived despite sitting in the couple’s fridge the whole time.

‘It was camouflaged in amongst the salad leaves, so I just didn’t see it when I put a handful in as part of the coronation chicken sandwich,’ the former police officer said.

Phil said it’s put him off coronation chicken ‘for life’ (Picture: Chris Barron)

‘It’s absolutely disgusting – it’s put me off coronation chicken for life and I’ll be going through any salad I have in future with a fine-tooth comb,’ he added.

To make matters worse, Phil tested positive for Covid when he got home from work after feeling unwell later in the day.

‘A locust sandwich and Covid – I’ve definitely had better days,’ he said.

The father-of-two wants an investigation into the locust incident and for Sainsbury’s to make a ‘meaningful donation’ to a foodbank in Darlington as a goodwill gesture.

Phil said he’s ‘had better days’ after also testing positive for Covid after his locust lunch (Picture: Chris Barron)

Sainsbury’s head office said the product came from a manufacturer called G’s, adding that it isn’t made by Sainsbury’s and is available in other supermarkets.

G’s, described on its website as one of Europe’s leading fresh produce companies, has been contacted for a comment.

In the meantime, the locust will be sent to Sainsbury’s Product Quality Team for further examination, the supermarket giant said.

A company spokesperson said: ‘We have apologised for this unpleasant find and we are investigating with the manufacturer.’

The store manager of the Darlington store said a donation would be made to a local food bank as requested.

It’s not the first time a Sainsbury’s shopper has encountered a locust. In April, 2018, Sainsbury’s apologised to a man in Belfast after he found a locust in one of the supermarket’s ready-made salads.

According to a BBC report at the time, Gerard O’Hora was eating a chicken and bacon Caesar salad when he saw ‘something black and strange out of the corner of my eye’.

It turned out to be a locust, cut in half, but still squirming.

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‘I thought to myself, coronation chicken shouldn’t be that hard and crunchy.’