A GRANDDAD says that he could have died after a cherry pie he bought from Tesco in Saltcoats was found to contain six metal screws – one of which he accidentally swallowed.

Graham Byrne, a retired safety officer from Ardrossan, has been in a dispute with Tesco since December when he made the shocking find in one of their pies.

The 69-year-old said: “I thought my tooth had come out at first then I thought: ‘Is that a hard bit of pastry?’ I swallowed it, then I saw a screw on the spoon.

“I took the pie back the next day. They found five metal self-tapping screws in it. That’s six including the one I swallowed.

“I didn’t know what to do, whether to go to A&E or not. It took three days to work its way through my body then I just felt this prickling sensation.

“It could have went into my kidney and been life threatening. I could have been lying in hospital. It could have killed me.”

Tesco offered Graham a £20 money card but the dad of four says that he would have preferred an apology and an explanation.

He said: “I think it’s a bit of a cheek. It’s not about the money because I would just give it to charity anyway.

“I told them they had better take these off the shelf. They obviously don’t check them.

“They seem to be blaming the supplier at the moment. I won’t be going back again. They’ve let me down.

“Screws don’t just fall into a pie. To find one is bad enough, but six? They’ve got metal detectors in factories so you have to wonder how they got there.”

A spokesperson for Tesco said: “We have robust food quality processes in place during the preparation and packaging of this product, so we were surprised to hear about this incident.

“We have asked our supplier to investigate how this could have happened and will keep Mr Byrne updated.”