Cockroach horror
Cheese has unexpected bug in late-night snack
Apensioner who enjoys a late-night nibble of cheese, to help him sleep, got a rude awakening when he discovered his recently purchased block came with a crunchy extra - a dead cockroach.
Ian Score bought the 1kg block of Woolworths branded Everyday cheese - touted to have a sweet, mild, and buttery flavour - for about $10 from the supermarket chain’s Okara Park store, in Whangārei, on March 23.
A few nights later, he peeled back the wrapper to cut himself a sliver of his favourite dairy treat, which he ate before peeling back the wrapper a little further to cut some more.
That’s when he got an unpleasant surprise as the dead cockroach - 0.9cms long by 0.45cms wide - was suddenly exposed. It was embedded in the top of the cheese hidden under the peel-off cover wrap.
Score suspected the roach most likely have got there during the wrapping process and was concerned others might also have snuck into other blocks of the same cheese, other Woolworths products, or brands being wrapped at the same plant.
“Where there’s one cockroach, there’s a million more,” Score said.
And indeed there was at least one more - in that very same pack. Score hadn’t noticed it himself but the Northern Advocate did when it met with Score to discuss his concerns.
Shown the still largely wrapped block, we noticed another cockroach further down the block hidden by the overhanging edge of the peel-off top wrapper. The second roach was much smaller - measuring only a millimetre or two.
The insects are yet to be expert inspected but appeared to be either New Zealand native bush cockroaches or juvenile Gisborne cockroaches, which are similar to look at and a similar light colour when young. Neither are considered household pests and unlike German or American cockroaches don’t spread disease or fly.
Score said he was really concerned about the find so wanted to alert relevant authorities rather than just take the block straight back to the