Enjoying a cone of ice cream turned out to be a bitter experience for a Mumbai-based man as he was appalled to find a piece of flesh, apparently a severed human thumb, in the frozen dessert that he ordered online, police said on Thursday.

The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon, following which the man lodged a complaint with the police, they said.

The complainant, Brendon Ferrao (26), is a doctor with an MBBS degree and is a resident of Malad area in the metropolis.

"In his complaint, he said he ordered a butterscotch ice-cream cone from Yummo company through an e-Commerce app. While consuming the ice cream after lunch, he found a piece of flesh with a nail in it," a police official said.

The man, who is pursuing his post-graduate studies, then took up the matter with the ice cream company by complaining about it on its Instagram page.

But since there was no proper response from the firm, the complainant put the piece of flesh in an ice bag and approached went to the Malad police station, where he lodged a complaint, the official said.

Based on his complaint, the police registered a case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 273 (sale of noxious food and drink) and 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), against Yummo ice cream company officials, he said.

"The piece of flesh, suspected to be a piece of human finger, has been sent for forensic examination to ascertain whether it is a part of the human body," the official said.

Speaking to media persons about the incident, complainant Ferrao said while eating the ice cream, he found a big piece in his mouth and initially thought it to be a nut.

But as he suspected that something was wrong, he took out the piece from his mouth and was appalled to find a piece of flesh, he said. He said since he is a doctor, he knows the human body parts well and figured out that the piece of flesh that he found was of a thumb. "After finding the piece of flesh in the ice cream, I was almost trembling. It left me traumatised," he said.

Senior police inspector Ravindra Adane said the piece of flesh with a nail measured around one-and-a-half centimetres.

After registering the case, the police have launched a probe to find out from where the ice cream was brought, and where and when it was manufactured, he said.