A Welcome Bay mother is lost for words after finding a dead cockroach and bumble bee in a packet of microwave-cooked popcorn she gave her six-year-old daughter.

At about 2pm on Sunday Deborah Evans cooked a bag of Art Pop butter-flavoured microwave popcorn for her daughter Amber Gleeson, only to find two creepy insects inside.

BUGGING OUT: Deborah Evans and daughter Amber are stunned at finding a dead cockroach and bumble bee in their microwave popcorn.

'It was terrible, it was very devastating,” says Deborah.

'It's a sealed packet; you take the outer layer off and put in the microwave until it starts popping; and then I sort of let it cool down, opened it up and gave it – and next minute I hear screaming.”

At first Deborah thought her daughter was over-reacting about a few burnt ones, but then realised what was inside.

'I originally thought what is she going on about – she just kept going on and on and on, and in the end I gave in and I said: ‘What is up?' and she said: ‘In here'.”

'I thought ‘oh, don't be silly' and I looked in the packet and I just almost vomited.

'I could not believe my eyes.”

Deborah was at a friend's house at the time, and showed her what was inside.

'She just took one look and ran away and said ‘get it away from me'.”

Deborah then tipped some of the popcorn on a plate which Amber had already eaten.

'So she had actually eaten some out of that packet, so I was so disgusted and so worried for her health once I saw it – but it was too late, it was in her tummy.”

Deborah says while Amber hasn't suffered any health effects – the emotional upset afterwards has been traumatic.

'She cried and cried for ages – she was freaked out about it and upset she couldn't' eat her popcorn,” says Deborah.

'I was so incredibly grossed out.”

The Welcome Bay mother purchased the popcorn about two weeks ago but is unsure exactly where from.

'It could have been [bought] from anywhere as I shop where-ever I am at the time – and I do buy it [popcorn] regularly, but I don't know if I buy the same brand; I buy what is available.”

SunLive contacted three supermarket chains in Tauranga – Countdown, New World and Pak N Save - which all confirmed they don't sell the product.

Deborah contacted the product's NZ supplier Universal Trade, based in Auckland, yesterday to tell them what she'd found.

'They said: ‘Oh, I don't know that could happen; that can't happen on the production line'. I said: ‘Well I opened the packet and it's happened somewhere'.”

The company is sending a free packet of popcorn to Deborah and has requested she send the leftover product and the insects to them.

'They said: ‘We're really sorry about that and we'll send a courier bag to you so you can send the popcorn back up to us'.”

Deborah is hoping the supplier company will find the cause of how the insects got into the packet, to prevent further instances.

'I'm not happy about only getting one packet; I think their compensation could have been a bit better considering the emotional stress it caused us all – but I hope it goes further and there is no guarantees it will.”

Universal Trade, which imports and supplies Art Pop popcorn to supermarkets in New Zealand, confirms it has received Deborah's complaint.

National sales manager Cameron Morris says Universal Trade is the importer and supplier of the popcorn brand and the company takes such complaints 'very seriously”.

'We have a strict quality assurance and quality control programme that all supplies must have, we are audited at least once per year and we have to have certifications for importing products,” says Cameron.

'When we have a consumer complaint we take all of them very seriously and we investigate them fully; and until we have an outcome we cannot take preventative action.”

Cameron says without having the company's QA team inspect the item and see the batch number and information; it's very concerning at this stage.

'We need to investigate it, like any supplier would, before we get back to the customer – and if need be, make a widespread announcement to market and store, but at this stage we have very little information.”

Cameron says the popcorn comes from Chile and the company will work with its Chilean supplier if need be, once the product has been investigated.

'We need to find out what's going on first.”

Cameron says generally when the company has a consumer issue it would be much more widespread 'because we supply much more supermarkets in the country”.

Also the complaint of two different insects being in one product is unusual, says Cameron.

'To have heard there is two different species in a bag of popcorn is a very strange one.

'To have a cockroach and a bumble bee both dead [in a packet] is very peculiar – not that we have any reason to question it – but what we'll do, as soon as we get it back, is we'll give it to our Quality Control manager.

'For the consumer it is very alarming…and indeed it serious, but we have to investigate it properly first.”