Caterpillar found in IKEA's food store in Hyderabad

After a customer from the newly-opened IKEA in Hyderabad complained of a caterpillar in his food on Friday, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) fined the store management Rs 11,500, according to media reports.

The Swedish furniture giant, which opened its first store less than a month ago in Hyderabad, has now issued an apology.

"We are currently investigating the matter to understand what happened and take immediate action," an IKEA spokeswoman said, as quoted by Reuters.

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Abeed Mohammad posted the picture on Twitter on Friday. He had ordered a vegetable Hyderabad Biriyani from the store in which he found a caterpillar.

Following which he alerted the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). He also tagged the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao in the tweet.

The GHMC has issued a notice to the IKEA restaurant manager and also to Haldirams, the Nagpur vendor from which it procures food items.

As per reports, officials from the GHMC went to inspect the store and collect food samples for tests.

The first IKEA store in India opened on 9 August, five years after IKEA received government approval in 2013 to invest Rs 10,500 crore to open 25 stores in India by 2025. Its next store will open in Navi Mumbai in 2019, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi. In the next phase, IKEA would cover Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata.