A dead animal found in a packet of Kettle Chips has been identified as a shrew and not a mouse as first thought.

An in-depth probe by Kettle Foods has also found that the animal did not get into the bag when the crisps were being packaged. 

The grim discovery was made by John Hughes and his wife Elinor whilst they were munching their way through a bag at their Conwy Valley home.

Mr Hughes immediately rang Kettle Foods UK and said the company asked him to send a photograph and also to put the “foreign body” in an envelope and post it to them.

However, within a minute of the photograph being sent the company rang to say a courier would come to collect the mouse.

Following an investigation, a Kettle Foods Ltd spokeswoman said: "We pride ourselves on producing quality products and are always striving to provide our consumers with the best possible chips.

"We take food safety and quality very seriously and have stringent systems and procedures in place to ensure that every bag of KETTLE® Chips reaches our consumers in perfect condition.

"We have been consulting with Mrs Hughes since this issue came to light yesterday.

"We received the pack last night and have today sought independent advice from an expert Pest Control Company.

"From this we have ascertained that the dead animal is a shrew, and due to its appearance in the bag it would seem to have been dead for a relatively short period of time.

"Our investigations so far indicate that the shrew did not enter the bag at Kettle Foods, or during distribution, and therefore we need to understand how it came to be associated with our product. Naturally we are taking this issue seriously and will be undertaking further work to ascertain how this situation came about.

"We fully understand the anxiety that this has caused to Mr and Mrs Hughes and we will continue to liaise directly with them.

A spokesman for supermarket Sainsbury's, where the couple say they bought the bag, were not available for comment.