PENSIONER Walter Tickner got more than he bargained for when he tucked into some cream crackers and marmalade.

As the 65-year-old was eating his breakfast he crunched down on the piece of metal and thought that one of his fillings had fallen out.

"I said to mother 'what the hell is that'," explained Walter, of Brookfield Road, Wooburn Green. "I started chewing my breakfast and I felt something hard in my mouth."

The pensioner had settled down to a breakfast of Tesco's own brand cream crackers on Thursday morning, which he bought from the Loudwater store, when he got more than a mouthful of marmalade.

Walter added: "I thought it was my filling that had come out of my tooth at first.

"When I fished it out, it was a quarter inch piece of metal. It looked like it might have been brass. I couldn't believe it had come out of the crackers."

Walter is returning the splinter of metal, and the cream crackers it was found in to Tesco. They will investigate. He said: "It's quite dangerous. What if it had been a child? Little children could have choked."

Russell Craig, a spokesman for Tesco, said they were sorry about Mr Tickner's experience and that he had three options: Take the product back to the store, it can be picked up from his home or he could give it to Trading Standards.

Mr Craig added: "Obviously these things are very unusual. But when you sell and mass produce as much as Tesco does it could be a possibility that it can happen. A full investigation will be carried out and the supplier will give us an explanation and assure us it will never happen again."