A MUM is furious after finding her daughter’s rice pudding was ‘thick with mould’.

Michelle Massey almost fed the Ambrosia mini-rice pudding to 18-month-old Scarlett before realising the dessert was not fit to be consumed.

The 29-year-old, from Bolton, said she was particularly horrified as little Scarlett has a condition which means she struggles to keep food down.

The former beauty worker, who is also mum to 7-month-old son Dalton, said: “If I had turned my back for one second and she had started eating it, that would have put her in hospital.

"I opened the pot and as soon as I put it down to give it her I thought ‘oh my god’. I went back into the kitchen, I thought ‘is it my eyes or something’ but I looked and it was mould as thick as anything.

“It’s disgusting to think this could even happen. It had gone all the way to the bottom of the pot.”

A spokesman for Premier Foods, which makes the dessert, said rigorous factory checks were in place to ‘ensure we deliver our range to the highest standard.’ The company has sent Ms Massey a £5 voucher and a letter. The company maintains the pot was damaged – causing the pudding to go mouldy.

Ms Massey, who lives with her children’s father, Adam Clayton, says that the food was well within its sell-by date and had been stored properly.

She said: “Other people might be fobbed off, but I won’t. They said if it gets pricked and air gets into it we have a problem with mould. “I said they should be thinking of changing the packaging so it could not get pricked and we wouldn’t have the situation where children could be getting ill. By the time a child has eaten it, it’s too late, they are feeling ill and don’t understand why.”

Ms Massey said she had been offered recompense by Ambrosia, but that addressing the root cause was more important. If they used packaging that was not as cheap they would not keep getting all these setbacks. They could use an alternative, like mini-cans. They said they considered that and would be thinking about it in the future.”

The mum-of-two also felt the company did not treat her complaint seriously enough. “I did explain my daughter could be in hospital and I was told not to be so drastic. I said ‘my daughter has an illness and mould can make you very, very poorly’. Some babies are very sensitive to mould, you don’t know what type of mould is building up. This mould wasn’t just a few days old.”

A Premier Foods spokesperson said “The quality and safety of our products is of utmost importance to us.

“We produce millions of Ambrosia products each year and have rigorous factory checks in place to ensure we deliver our range to the highest standard.

“We’re sorry that Ms Massey had cause to complain, and have been in touch with her directly to discuss the issue”.

Ms Massey runs a parenting blog at https://mspencer80.wixsite.com/the-mum-life-blog