A woman told Galway Civil Court yesterday that she found a live earwig crawling around at the bottom of a bag of Walker's crisps as she settled down to watch The Late Late Show this time last year.
Mrs Kathleen Corban, from Rahylin Glebe, Ballybane, Galway, told the court she could not believe her eyes when she saw the pincers of the insect crawling around and she still shudders when she sees young children eating crisps.
However, after hearing all the evidence, Judge Michael Connellan said he accepted that the earwig could not have survived in the packet for so long, given that the date of manufacture was August 7th, 2000, a month before she opened it.
He said he could only assume that the insect got in by other means. He dismissed the claim and awarded costs and expenses of £800 to Walkers crips.
"I just couldn't believe it. I was terrified. I was shaking. I couldn't believe it was there and alive," Mrs Corban told the judge.
Mrs Corban wrote to Walker's crisps and contacted her solicitor the following week. She refused to hand over the earwig when Walker's sent a courier to pick it up because she said she wanted to keep it as evidence and show it to her solicitor.
Mr Kevin Malone, quality assurance manager at Walker's manufacturing plant in Peterlee, England, outlined to the court the strict production process employed by the company to ensure that nothing untoward got into its crisps. A £15 million state-of-the-art packaging system ensured the crisps were packed to the highest standards, he said.
Mr Malone said he did not think it possible for an earwig to get into a packet of crisps. However, he agreed with Mr Adrian MacLynn, solicitor for Mrs Corban, that even the best systems occasionally broke down.
He went on to deny any knowledge of a previous tabloid newspaper report presented to the court by Mr MacLynn which detailed the discovery by an English woman of a deep-fried frog in a packet of Walker's crisps.