Sally Kabak with a piece of glass her granddaughter found in a pottle of Maggi beef noodles.

A $25 voucher that arrived in the mail is being described as an insult by the Wellington woman whose granddaughter found a shard of glass or plastic in her noodles.

When Sally Kabak's 11-year-old granddaughter ripped the top off a cup of Maggi beef noodles she found a large shard of sharp glass or hard plastic nestled among its flavour sachets.

"If she had swallowed it, she probably would have died or cut her oesophagus," Kabak said. "And they think $25 is going to appease me?"

She said she would not use the voucher from Maggi maker Nestle, which could be used only on Nestle products, as that would be seen as tacit acceptance of the gesture.

She could not name a price that would be acceptable, and vowed "I'm not resting" till the issue had been sorted out.

Last week, after the find, Nestle Australia spokeswoman Anita Catalano confirmed that the company had received a complaint from Kabak.

Nestle had spoken to her and collected the cup and the offending object so that a full investigation could be conducted.

The sample was awaiting clearance in New Zealand customs and was expected in Australia for testing this week.

"Once it arrives we will conduct a thorough investigation, which will involve sending it to an expert glass technologist who can identify the type of glass and where it might have been used."

If the object was glass, it would be very unusual, she said.

"Finding glass is very rare. We have a standard investigation process for any finding of glass, which includes sending it to an expert glass technologist in Australia, who can identify the type of glass and where it might have been used," she said.

"At the same time, we look at records of what may have happened in the factory. This includes looking to see if there are other complaints in the same batch, and looking at records of what happened while the batch was being produced – for example, any records of broken glass."

Where possible, Nestle designed its factories to avoid using glass, she said.

"Our factory in Malaysia, where these noodles are produced, has a full record of every glass item in the factory."