A Dutch couple got the surprise of their lives when sitting down to dinner earlier this month when an Italian wall lizard appeared on the table.

The lizard – which had been sitting among bits of pear and walnut – suddenly jumped out of the salad bowl and gave Norbert de Veen and his wife from Zwaanshoek quite a surprise. ‘We nearly had a heart attack,’ De Veen told the AD.

De Veen initially thought his son had been playing a trick on them but later concluded the lizard had made the trip from field to table as part of the bag of mixed salad they had bought at an Albert Heijn supermarket some time earlier.

The pair eventually took the 15 cm long reptile, which they called Appie, to reptile zoo Artisklas in Haarlem. According to Artisklas director Harald Ames, Appie is lucky to be alive.

‘Lamb’s lettuce is harvested and then immediately washed in ice cold water. Because of the cold the lizard immediately went into hibernation. In that state it needed far less oxygen and that is why it could survive in the airtight bag,’ he said.

It is not often Ames is offered a lizard. ‘Wholesalers bring in frogs that have got in among the vegetables from time to time,’ Ames told the paper.

The lizard, who is doing well, will eventually be moved to a zoo with other Italian wall lizards.

The De Veen family have been offered a gift voucher by AH. ‘These things happen. We have not been traumatised by it. But we will be checking our mixed salad in future,’ they told the AD.