“Let’s do the investigation and find out the facts and, if there needs to be a fix, we’ll do a fix,” he told 1News.

“They investigate everything and, often times, it turns out to be a false alarm so let’s take it seriously until we know the facts.”

The Herald has approached the School Lunch Collective for comment.

Labour’s education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said the latest incident was a “new low” for the school lunch programme.

“First it was exploding lunches, then frozen lunches, then it was plastic and glass, now it’s a bug,” she said.

“This is an insult to our students. Our children deserve better than this.

“David Seymour promised all issues would be fixed come start of Term 2, but they’re not.”

Prime said New Zealand Food Safety must be thorough in its investigation.

“Finding an insect in a school lunch is an appalling further drop in standards,” she said.

“If David Seymour’s shocking track record on school lunches is anything to go by, once he becomes Deputy Prime Minister we’re in for some more nasty surprises.”

The school lunch programme has been beset by multiple issues since launching in a new form earlier this year, including problem deliveries, plastic melting into a meal, and one child suffering second-degree burns from a hot lunch.