A BUSINESSWOMAN dished up a portion of egg fried MICE for her hungry family.

Natalie Winter had microwaved a quick meal for her husband and three children after a busy day at work - only to discover it contained more than she'd bargained for.

The packet of Chinese egg fried rice she had bought at Lidl on her way home turned out to also contain what she believes were the remains of a mouse.

Mrs Winter, who lives in Wrantage and runs Bambino and More babies and children's clothing store, returned the offending packet to the store on Roman Road, Taunton, and the company is now carrying out an investigation.

Her mother, Celia Smith, said: "The family were just mesmerised when they saw there was something in it and they certainly didn't want to touch it.

"Natalie was going to throw it away but I told her to take it back to the Lidl store so they could get to the bottom of it because there are health and safety issues.

"You don't expect to find a dead mouse in a packet of rice."

A Lidl spokesman said: "We were very sorry to hear that this particular product did not meet the high standards that both we and our customers expect.

"We take matters such as these extremely seriously, and it has been escalated to our quality assurance team who will be carrying out a full investigation."