I'm not hungry, thanks! Tesco brands Finest spaghetti bolognese 'the balls of grandad'
- Packaging features signs from an Italian market advertising 'Le Palle de Nonno' and 'Coglioni di Mulo'
- They translate as 'the balls of grandad' and 'donkey's b*******'
By IAN GARLAND
The packaging musters up images of a rustic Italian market, with mouthwatering salamis nestling in baskets and signs poetically advertising all manner of delicious treats.
At least that's what Tesco hoped when it created the design for its Finest Spaghetti Bolognese.
Except the food giant forgot to check what was really written in Italian on the signs that feature prominently on the microwaveable meal.
Le Palle De Nonno means 'The balls of grandad' and Coglioni di Mulo means 'donkey's b*******'.
Tasty?The signs feature on the side of the packaging for Tesco's Finest Spaghetti Bolognese
The picture as it appears on the side of the Spaghetti Bolognese packet
Tesco admits the £3 meal with the offending packaging has been on store shelves across the UK for 'a long time'.
Amazingly, the cheeky picture went unnoticed until it was recently spotted by an Italian-speaking customer.
They confirmed the other words innocently describe wild boar, buck, deer and goose meats, but revealed the naughty truth about Coglioni di Mulo and Le Palle de Nonno.
'Donkey's b*******' is regarded as a serious insult in Italy, while 'Grandad's balls' is actually a cheeky slang term for a long and nobbly salami sold throughout the country.
Nevertheless, Tesco admits the photo should never have appeared on supermarket shelves.
A spokesman told MailOnline: 'We can only apologise for any offence caused to our Italian-speaking customers.
'The photo in question was taken at an Italian food market and the signs were clearly written by someone with an interesting sense of humour.
'We will make changes to the packaging at the earliest possible opportunity.'
Oops: Tesco admits the product has been on shelves for 'a long time'
Tesco aren't the first big corporation to find naughty messages hidden in the packaging of their products.
Drinkers were shocked to discover they could read 'SEX' spelled out on promotional cans of Pepsi, released back in 1990.
The subliminal message was only revealed when the cans were stacked one on top of the other.
Drinkers were shocked to find a secret message hidden in cans of Pepsi
Skittles encountered similar embarrassment when they released their berry explosion version.
A conveniently placed 's' turned explosion to 'sexplosion' - thrilling libidinous schoolchildren across the globe.
A conveniently placed 's' turns Berry Explosion to 'Berry Sexplosion'
And coffee-lovers who were around when java giant Starbucks first launched in Seattle in the 1970s may remember the more saucy version of their famous logo.
Zoomed-out, you can see the Starbucks mermaid is actually holding her scaly legs apart in a suggestive pose.
An older version of the world famous Starbucks logo reveals the mermaid is holding her legs apart in a suggestive pose
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153143/Im-hungry-thanks-Tesco-brands-Finest-spaghetti-bolognese-balls-grandad.html#ixzz1wXmO4WKo