A HAMPSHIRE supermarket has launched an investigation after a shocked customer discovered his lunch-time snack was full of nails.

Southampton office worker David Beckett raised the alarm after almost swallowing one of the nails contained in his spaghetti pasta.

A female colleague had bought the food from a salad bar at the Totton branch of Asda Monday lunchtime.

Mr Beckett said: "I had just started to tuck into my portion when I felt a piece of metal in my mouth. I spat it out and then saw two or three other nails poking out.

"I was disgusted that such dangerous objects could end up in a bowl of food and want a formal apology from the company.

"Asda should take precautions to make sure that this sort of thing never happens.

"The nail in my mouth could have caused a nasty injury and there's always a possibility that I might have swallowed one of the others. Luckily my colleagues had ordered other salad bar products that don't appear to have been affected."

Mr Beckett, who works for the Westermo data communications company at Solent Business Centre, rang the store to complain and raise the alarm.

"Asda are taking it very seriously," he said.

An Asda spokesman at Totton said the nails were thought to have entered the pasta accidentally during the production process.

"We're awaiting feedback from our supplier," he said.

A spokesman at Asda's head office in Leeds said: "We are very grateful to the customer for bringing this to our attention.

"The store immediately withdrew the pasta from sale and examined other products on display in the salad bar, but no other nails were found.

"We'll keep in touch with the customer."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.