Doctors recommend getting more iron in your diet – but needles through strawberries isn’t what they had in mind.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Guyra woman Kylie Wilson found two strawberries with steel pins stuck through them.
“As soon as we cut the first one,” Ms Wilson said, “we knew something was wrong, because it wouldn’t cut properly.”
READ ALSO:
Ms Wilson bought the Delightful Berries brand from the IGA supermarket in Guyra about 6pm on Friday.
“If we didn’t get it, some one else would have,” Ms Wilson said.
“I couldn’t image how painful it would have been if a child had bitten into it.”
The fruit was seized, and police are investigating.
“Honestly, it hasn’t stopped me from buying strawberries, especially from IGA,” Ms Wilson said.
“I bought some today, and they were delicious! Still support the farmers. Don’t throw strawberries away; just cut the fruit up.”
Ms Wilson’s unpleasant discovery is another incident in a nation-wide contamination crisis that has now reached New England.
An Inverell resident told police they purchased two punnets of the fruit from Woolworths in Sweaney Street, Inverell, about 2.30pm on Friday.
Over the weekend, the purchaser became aware that berries in one of the punnets was contaminated with what was described as a needle, police said.
The customer alerted the supermarket and police. As a consequence, investigators have seized the fruit.
Officers are urging anyone who finds contaminated strawberries to contact local police and the store where they were purchased from.
Coles and Aldi supermarkets have pulled all strawberries from their shelves, except Western Australia, as a precaution.
Berry Obsession, Berry Licious, and Donnybrook Berries have recalled their strawberries nationwide.
A health warning to throw out or cut up strawberries remains in place in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and South Australia.