A disgusted father was shocked when he found live maggots in a Fray Bentos pie moments before he was going to cook it for his children.

Stuart Pay, aged 39, discovered the grubs wriggling around inside the pie in front of his horrified wife Jane, 34, and their children, four-year-old Cody, Kurtis, 12, and Jade, 14.

The electrician was about to cook the Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie on Monday evening when he noticed there were clumps of pastry missing.

When he looked more closely at the dish he was shocked to discover three maggots crawling out of the filling.

"We were about to put it in the oven but then we noticed there was a bit of pastry missing and then we saw the maggots," he said.

"We were going absolutely mad. We were disgusted.

"We took lots of pictures of it but when we got in touch with Baxters, who make it, they fobbed us off.

"I will never buy them again. I will never buy a pie out of a tin again.

"It is disgusting. It could have made my kids ill because at the start I just thought some of the pastry casing was missing but then I looked further.

"So the maggots must have eaten it away.

"It is very gross. I only bought the pie days before. It is really horrible.

"I dread to think how it happened.

"It might have happened in the factory. We think there may have been flies in the factory and they may have laid their eggs in the containers there.”

The family, who live Honeybourne, near Evesham, bought the £2.49 pie from their local Iceland branch last week.

Full-time mum Mrs Pay added: "I do not think the store are at fault at all. They cannot see what is inside the pies.

"I have kept them for evidence for the moment."

The three maggots found in the pie were dead. The best before date on the tin was January 2017.

A spokesman for Fray Bentos, which is owned by Baxters, said: "We have been informed of the claims made by Mr and Mrs Pay regarding one of our Fray Bentos products and are treating their complaint as a priority.

"Our immediate request on being contacted was to ask for the product to be returned so we could instigate an internal investigation into the can and its contents.

"As of yet we have not received the product therefore it is impossible for us to speculate further on these claims."