New Zealand’s biggest baking company is promising compensation to a man who found a cockroach in a loaf of bread.

The firm, Goodman Fielder promised compensation to Rob Hemming, but he heard nothing more until the Herald on Sunday got involved.

Now the company says it will send him a $60 voucher and a ham, but insists the cockroach was not baked into its bread.

Hemming discovered the insect in his bread a month ago.

"The next day I pulled it out of the fridge for breakfast and I spotted a blooming cockroach embedded in the bread."

He took the bread back to the Selwyn Heights Four Square in Rotorua, whose manager offered Hemming a replacement. But he decided to deal with the manufacturer directly.

Hemming called Goodman Fielder. A representative apologised and told him to freeze the loaf and she would post him some packaging to return it.

The first package did not turn up, and it was two weeks before the replacement arrived.

Goodman Fielder spokesman Ian Greenshields said the loaf had been examined at an independent laboratory; "Their tests showed the cockroach was not baked into the product but there was a hole in the bag and the cockroach could easily and most probably crawled into the bag," Greenshields said.

Four Square owner Amish Patel was confident the cockroach had not got into the bread at his shop.