Karen Bennett, a charity worker from Kent, had an unexpected discovery inside a packet of parsnips. She bought the vegetables from Sainsbury's and only discovered the amphibian five days later. 
She said: 'I was cooking Sunday dinner and I was chopping carrots and I opened a packet of parsnips. I dropped the scissors and screamed. I panicked and couldn't work out what was inside. I was screaming and jumping around the kitchen and my husband and son came running to help me. I couldn't believe it. It took me a few more days to come to my senses. When I first saw her, I thought she was smiling."
The toad spent five days in the refrigerator before being discovered. Karen named her Nippy.
"But the worst thing was the poor toad. First, they washed her, dried her and sealed her. It's incredible that she survived. Not a single leg was damaged."
The common toad secretes poison from glands on the back of its head when it senses danger.
"If we ate parsnips, we could poisoned,' says Karen. 'The toad would probably get scared and secrete the poison.'
The woman has already contacted Sainsbury's but has not yet received a response.
Bennett complained: 'I wrote to them nine days ago and got an automated reply. I rang but was told to expect a letter. I will always check my purchases carefully from now on. Their quality control is probably not very strict. It's a big toad, it's been through the cleaning and packaging.'
A British woman took Nippy to a wildlife centre where she is recovering: 'They've got her on a mealworm bed. She's stronger now and looking better. It's absolutely wonderful.'
Karen hopes to visit the toad in the spring before she is released into the wild.
A Sainsbury's spokesman said: 'We have strict quality controls in place to ensure nothing like this happens. We are investigating an incident involving our supplier."
