FINDING healthy, nutritious and tasty food on a diet can be tough...but adding caterpillars was a step too far for a Colchester woman.

Natalie Purslow joined a slimming club this week and bought freeze-dried pasta meals.

But she got more than she bargained for when she sat down to lunch with her husband Wayne at their home in Iceni Way.

The 24-year-old found a frozen caterpillar in the snack.

She showed it to Wayne, who said: “I rolled it in my fingers and realised I was looking into a face.

“I looked closely and saw lots of little legs and realised it was a freeze-dried caterpillar – it obviously came off the vegetables.”

The couple have contacted the manufacturers.