Food writer and journalist Jack Monroe has reported finding a string of blue plastic in the middle of a Linda McCartney vegetarian sausage they were eating.

Monroe shared a photograph of the red onion and rosemary sausage on Twitter after chewing through it.

The 30-year-old said: “Was not expecting to find several inches of plastic in my @LindaFoods sausage this evening! Check your sausages before you chew them folks.”

Monroe, who has campaigned on food and poverty issues particularly the use of food banks in Britain, said the blue plastic came out of the sausage like a “magician’s handkerchief”. 

They also shared photographs of the box the product had come in and the best before date – they had been cooked from frozen. 

Monroe responded to comments joking that they were trying to reduce plastic usage and the offending item was not helping.

One woman told Monroe that this had happened to her before and she was told by the brand that it was part of the bag that some of the ingredients come in.

The frozen sausages are made from rehydrated soya protein. 

HuffPost UK has contacted Linda McCartney Foods for a statement but is yet to receive a response.

The brand’s social media team responded to Monroe’s tweet saying: “We’re really sorry this happened. Please DM us with some contact details and we’ll get in touch first thing tomorrow when our offices open to look into this for you.”

This article will be updated if a response is received from the brand.