A horrified Bradford mum has demanded an apology after she claimed to have found a cockroach in a tin of stewed steak.

Sue Healey said she made the grim discovery when she sat down to eat the John West meat with her 17-year-old daughter Charlotte.

As she took a forkful of the food, which she had served with mashed potatoes and peas, she said she found the insect and screamed.

"I felt sick straight away," said 39-year-old Mrs Healey.

"I was crying and shaking and I had to run to the garden to be sick because I wouldn't have made it upstairs."

She showed the tin and the insect, wrapped in a plastic bag, to a Bradford Council environmental health officer.

"She asked if she could have a look at it and she told me it was a cockroach and I felt sick again," said Mrs Healey.

"I asked if we were going to be poorly because I'd eaten some of this meal and she said it goes through a series of canning processes and I would be okay.

"She said because it was canned in Brazil there was nothing they could do and I'd have to contact John West."

Mrs Healey, of Wrose Avenue, Swain House, said: "I've been in touch with John West but they want me to send it to them and then it's gone."

Nigel Dickie, a spokeman for Heinz, which runs the John West Food group, said the company was concerned that Mrs Healey had experienced the problem.

He said: "We are keen to investigate exactly what the problem is and have offered to carry out an investigation but she has chosen to take it to the environmental health department. We will collaborate with any investigation they want to pursue."

A Bradford Council environmental protection spokesman said: "We offered to contact John West on the complainant's behalf to determine when their factory was last inspected.

"However we did point out to her that we had no jurisdiction over products tinned outside this country and could take no formal legal action.