A mother was horrified when her children found a severed chicken head looking up at them from a plate of Iceland wings.

Ceanne Reid has quit meat after her family were greeted by a face looking up at them from the supermarket's Let's Eat American BBQ Chicken Wings.

Her 14-year-old niece declared she had discovered a 'face' on her plate, leading her aunt to think she was reporting a mere resemblance of facial features.

Ceanne Reid (pictured, left) was outraged to find the severed chicken's head (right) in among the wings

But when the laughing business management student asked to see what she was talking about, her giggles turned to gasps.

The 25-year-old said her two sons were retching as she raced to get the meal out of the room.

Sickened by the discovery the family lost their appetite and the children refused to snack on anything other than crisps and yoghurts.

Iceland said their investigation found it was an isolated incident and that 'extreme measures' have been taken by the supplier to prevent recurrence.

The mother-of-three had hoped to feed her children a nice family meal but found a head resting on their plate

It is believed that the employee responsible will be 'disciplined' and a camera is to be installed in the 'cutting room' area of the processing plant.

Ms Reid, from Birmingham, West Midlands, took the head into the store in a tupperware container demanding answers.

'I was totally disgusted, I couldn't believe it when I saw it,' she said. 'I remember thinking, "is it really a chicken head?".

'I nearly threw up as I'd just taken my wings off that plate, even thinking about it now makes me feel sick. The thought I could have picked it up and put it in my mouth makes me feel queasy.

'Everything is intact - you could see where the eyes were, the beak, even the little red wattles underneath. You can also see where it's been cut off from the neck.

'As far as I'm aware everything inside the head must be still in there too - the eyeballs and the brain is still in there. Since then I haven't eaten meat, it's really put me off.

'We were going to cook spaghetti bolognese for their dinner that night and in the end I made a pasta bake.'

She picked up the £1.50 bag of frozen chicken wings from an outlet inside The Range in West Bromwich on April 24.

A firm favourite with the family, she had bought it to feed eight children including her two children, nieces, nephews and young cousins.

Ms Reid cooked the chicken wings as usual and plated them up for people to help themselves to when her niece made the grim discovery.

'I didn't analyse to see what's a wing and what wasn't because I wasn't expecting to find anything other than chicken wings,' she said. 'If it says chicken wings on the packet I'm not looking for a severed head.

'My niece suddenly said "aunty there's a face", I thought she meant the chicken wings were in the shape of a face on the plate.

The head (pictured on the plate) had been fried along with the wings and found its way into an Iceland meal

'It was only when I saw something pointy that I took another look and realised what it was.

'The meal came to an end pretty quickly after the chicken head was found, everybody stopped eating at that point. The kids then refused to eat anything else and instead had crisps and yoghurts.'

The next day Ms Reid went back into the store and was stunned to discover the product was still being sold despite the possibility of another head floating around.

Ceanne said: 'I wanted to keep hold of the head so that the issue didn't get brushed under the carpet.

Ms Reid (pictured) was disgusted to discover a chicken head in the meal and stormed into the store to show them

'I put it in a tupperware container and took it back into the store that day to show somebody what I'd found.

'I went back in the next day to see if the wings were still on the shelf as I thought 'if it's in my bag, god knows what's going on in the rest of them?'

'I couldn't believe they were still on sale - wouldn't you want to take them off the shelves to prevent it happening to anyone else?

'I feel that I've been passed from pillar to post when complaining about this, it's ridiculous. I've spoken to so many people about it without a decent outcome.

'I would have liked to see the product pulled from the shelves, I think that would have been the best thing to do - how do they know it's not in any other packets?

'I usually shop regularly at Iceland but it's put me off buying from there - I'll definitely be swapping where I shop from now on.'

An Iceland spokesman said: 'Iceland takes great pride in the quality of its own label food and we naturally take all complaints extremely seriously.

'We can confirm that Ms Reid contacted us about a bag of BBQ American chicken wings that clearly did not meet our usual standards.

'Our customer care team was alerted immediately and has investigated the issue alongside our buying team and supplier, and concluded that it was an isolated incident; extreme measures have been taken by our supplier to guard against any recurrence.

'We have offered our customer our sincere apologies and our customer care manager has been in frequent contact with Ms Reid.

'An exceptional goodwill gesture was offered in recognition of the upset caused but we have yet to get a response from Ms Reid.'