An Ashford mum was left fuming after a roast chicken she bought had to be sent off for laboratory tests after she cut into and found it was green.

Deborah Rulton, from Cumberland Road, had been looking forward to a nice Sunday lunch after buying the chicken from the Town Lane branch of Tesco on April 5.

But she was left disgusted after she cut into the cooked chicken and found “green intestines” inside.

After frantic calls to the store and to Spelthorne Council’s environmental health department the chicken was picked up two days later for microbiological tests.

Mrs Rulton, who has two children, aged one and 11 weeks, says she was angry by the response from the supermarket giant.

“I notified both the store and head office, but neither party showed any concern that the chicken may be harmful and neither offered to take any corrective action. She added: "The only advice I was given was to throw the chicken away as it might smell. This is a disgrace.

“I am concerned that such an obviously bad chicken was able to make its way from the shelves, through Tesco Ashford's rotisserie counter and into my trolley.”

A spokesman for Spelthorne Council confirmed the chicken had been taken for tests and the results would be returned in around four-and-a-half weeks.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "We'd be interested in sharing the results when available so we can look into what happened. We can only apologise for this, our suppliers do all they can to remove this kind of risk through rigorous and thorough checks."