A North Vancouver woman got a little more protein than she asked for in a Subway wrap last week: bugs, dead and alive.
Debbie Parhar was at Capilano Mall picking up supplies for her son’s return to daycare Thursday when she got the awful surprise in her lunch. As she bit into her usual spinach wrap, a fly flew out. She then looked down and saw what appeared to be a “decaying grasshopper.”
The experience has left a lasting impact on Parhar. “I have no problem with Subway. It’s a nice, cheap, quick lunch but I think I will not be eating there for a long time,” she said. “I can’t even eat packaged spinach that you buy from the grocery store. Every time I think about it, I get quite violently ill.”
The response from Subway staff was less than impressive, Parhar added. “No disrespect to the clerks. They’re young. They’re probably just at their summer jobs. But the first thing they said was ‘This has never happened to us before’ and they didn’t want it to impact other customers,” she said. “They didn’t even throw the spinach away.
They just gave us a refund and sent us on our merry way.”
Since then, the owner of the franchise has sent a form response to Parhar and the parent company has pledged to resolve the matter.
“We’re going to investigate it thoroughly just to see what could have happened. It may have come from our manufacturer. It may not have,” said Dave Rowland, vice-president of operations for Subway B.C. and Alberta. “We definitely appreciate it coming to our attention so that we can look after it.”
Insects in produce is not common but it does happen from time to time, said Steve Chong, manager of environmental health for Vancouver Coastal Health. “It’s just the nature of growing produce in fields. Bugs will get into it. You can’t easily inspect it and it might just make it through the food process and end up on your plate,” he said.
Subway is likely not at fault, given the insects likely came in with a shipment of spinach, Chong added.
The Capilano Mall Subway doesn’t have a history of problems and its annual inspection in May of this year found no critical violations, Chong said. VCH will follow the “food chain” back to the spinach processors and will refer the case to the appropriate health authority in that jurisdiction, he said.
Anyone who has a health concern raised by restaurant food should contact VCH to investigate, Chong said.
