Mystery find in Morrison’s fruit juice carton

Julie Birkenshaw enjoys a glass of something sweet so was delighted when her pal Betty Richards picked her up a carton of fruit juice.

Julie, 84, spotted a few “bits of black” around the nozzle of the one litre apple and mango drink from Morrisons but, after tasting, thought it was fine and, over the course of a week, had almost finished it.

When Betty, also 84, visited her friend’s home in Doncaster to check in on her, Julie mentioned the discolouration on the now nearly-empty container.

“She showed me this black stuff and I said ‘Julie, you shouldn’t be drinking that’ so I poured away the little bit that was left,” said Betty.

“Then out it plopped into the sink and I thought, ‘oh what’s that?'”

Former nurse Betty peered at the plughole and saw the object, which she says measures about 12in (30cm), sitting in the sink.

After recovering from the initial shock, the resourceful octogenarian scraped the foot-long specimen onto a plate and whipped out a magnifying glass to inspect what had been in the fridge all week.

“I could see a face, these little eyes and a nose and I thought, ‘that’s definitely a snake’.

Not believing her eyes, she sought a second opinion from Julie’s neighbour Steven.

“He looked at it too and said ‘you’re right Betty, it’s a snake’ and I thought ‘oh dear, Julie has drunk all of this except for that little drop at the bottom’,” the former nurse explained.

Betty, who has been friends with Julie for 20 years, put the object in a carrier bag and took it back to the supermarket’s Armthorpe site – but described the response she received to her drink discovery as “very disappointing”.

“I was shaking when I went in there but I got no comfort at all.

“I told him ‘it’s not every day you find a snake in your drink’ and that I was worried about Julie.

“But he didn’t seem interested at all and I feel very let down by his lack of concern.”

The BBC showed the image of the find to experts at Leeds’s Tropical World centre – but they were unable to confirm whether the object was animal, mould or something else.

Morrison’s said a technical team had reviewed images of the carton contents and were “extremely confident that it is not a snake”.

The spokesperson said the manufacturing process was “fully enclosed and the liquid passes through a filter before being cartoned, which would prevent such a large item from entering the carton.”

“Our team believes that this could potentially be a strip of mould which may have occurred if the packaging was compromised – it only takes a hole the size of a pin (which can’t be seen) to allow air in and for mould to grow.

“This packaging damage could have happened at any time from production, sale or even in the customer’s home.”

The supermarket chain also apologised that Betty had not received “the high standard of customer care we strive for” in the store.

Betty added: “This has been very traumatising for us both.

“We’re talking about this snake all the time and it’s just been terrible.”