Tesco has apologised to a mum who cut open a whole chicken to find green meat.

Anna Adamson, from Winchester Crescent in Gravesend, had popped to her local Tesco Express in Valley Drive to buy the chicken for her Sunday roast.

The 42-year-old said: “I bought the chicken yesterday afternoon and it looked completely fine from the outside and it smelt normal.

“I didn't think anything was unusual so I put it in the oven. When it was cooked, my husband started carving the meat and called me saying it was green.

“I went out to have a look and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The mum-of-two took some photos before putting the carcass in the bin.

She and her partner had no choice but to eat their meatless roast dinner.

Despite it being a bank holiday weekend, Anna contacted Tesco through Facebook and was given an almost immediate reply.

A member of the customer service team said: “I'm really sorry this chicken was green when you have cut in to it, and I can understand how disappointing and frustrating this can be.

“I have passed your concerns on to our store management team and supplier to have this looked in to further for quality monitoring purposes.”

Anna was asked to provide her details and the details of the supermarket product before she was given a digital £10 voucher from Tesco.

Although she understand these things happen and it is not necessarily Tesco’s fault, Anna has vowed not to buy chicken from the supermarket again.

According to The Poultry Site green muscle disease is a hidden problem in broiler chickens, a chicken that is bred and raised specifically for meat production, that is not detected until the birds are deboned at a processing plant.

The poultry knowledge sharing platform explains this is not a new disease, but it is becoming increasingly more common in meat-type broiler chickens selected for high breast meat yield.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We expect our products to meet high standards for quality and were sorry to hear about this.

“We have refunded the customer and will pass the feedback on to our supplier.”