From Page 1 // Another needle found in strawberry

A police officer visited her yesterday and took a statement.

She decided to speak out even though she was warned by supermarket management not to speak to media. The supermarket refunded the value of the two punnets of strawberries and gave her a $20 voucher.

‘‘Everyone needs to know that this is still happening.

‘‘The father of my child said to talk to media about this because it could have killed my child.

‘‘I feel like crap because it could have hurt my daughter and I’m gravely concerned because I don’t want anyone getting hurt or dying.’’

A New Zealand Food Safety spokesperson said they were aware of the incident.

‘‘NZFS is working with police and will take any action needed to mitigate public health risk.

‘‘At this stage, we have no reason to believe this case is anything but an isolated incident.

‘‘We’ve no evidence of any risks in the supply chain or the food safety system. Rather, this is a potentially criminal activity and it is being treated as such.’’

People were advised to contact their retailer of call NZFS on 0800 00 83 33 if they seen anything suspicious.

‘‘NZFS takes these reports seriously and take whatever action is needed to ensure the public are protected from any food safety risk.

‘‘This includes checking the supply chain from retailer to grower,’’ the spokeswoman said.

‘‘If there is evidence of potential criminal activity, police will make further inquiries.’’

Laird added: ‘‘Customer safety is our number one priority and we encourage all customers to contact stores directly should they ever encounter a tampering issue with a product’’.