A 20-year-old mom was horrified when she discovered that the orange-flavored juice drink she bought at Greggs Bakery along Gallagher Retail Park, Cheltenham had traces of green mold. She brought the juice bottle out of the store and was about to refill it when she discovered the contamination on the bottle's cover.
Autumn Long was out shopping for a sofa with her 18-month-old son Maddox Long-O'Regan and a friend when they got hungry. Maddox ate a sandwich and a £1 Fruit Shoot, which he finished off as they resumed shopping.
"Less than an hour later, he'd finished the juice and I opened the bottle to refill it with some of our own - and that's when I saw the mold at the bottom," Long said. "I was completely shocked - I freaked out, I didn't know what to think."
Long said she found it disgusting as it was the last thing one would expect to see in a toddler's drink, according to The Sun. After taking photos of the contaminated juice bottle, she went back to Greggs to report the incident to the manager, who promised to investigate the complaint. She also got £1 for the juice.
The customer service team at Greggs gave Long a £12 voucher but she vowed never to go back to the store again, as per Daily Mail. She said her son was traumatized by the incident and does not want the same incident to happen to the other kids.
Long asked the manager to remove and check all the store's juice bottles. She was thankful that Maddox was fine but urged other parents to check the cleanliness of the fruit bottles from any store. Long said it could be beyond the control of Gregg's but there is definitely a quality control and manufacturing issue surrounding the incident.
As the leading retailer of bakery food and the largest bakery chain in the United Kingdom, Greggs has 12 bakeries and 1,698 shops. It is a trusted brand and much-loved by its customers, according to Greggs.
