Sewing needle found in loaf of bread
The bakery behind Ploughmans bread is investigating after a Wellington man reported finding a sewing needle in a sliced loaf.
Dwight, whom Stuff has agreed not to name in full, said he was buttering a slice of Ploughmans Bakery Harvest Rye bread when he saw light reflecting off the needle.
‘‘I couldn’t believe it. Thank Christ I didn’t bite into it,’’ he said.
After the initial shock of the discovery, Dwight said he thought the needle had been planted as a joke.
‘‘I’ve got young kids and I thought one of them might have done it for a laugh, but there are no holes in the bag where it would have gone in. The loaf must have been out of the bag,’’ he said.
‘‘It certainly wasn’t an accident, it was pushed right in, in line with the slice of bread.’’
Dwight said he bought the bread from a Lower Hutt supermarket about a month ago and stored it in his freezer. Because of the time that had passed, he couldn’t be certain which supermarket he bought it from.
The Ploughmans Bakery brand is owned by George Weston Foods (GWF), which also makes Tip Top and Burgen bread. A GWF spokesperson said Dwight’s loaf, the bag and needle had been collected for examination.
After that, they would be sent to police who would pass them on to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research for evaluation.
GWF had a rigorous food safety programme with zero tolerance for quality breaches, he said. Two metal detectors were used to ensure metal did not get into its loaves. A preliminary detector checked each loaf before slicing, and a primary detector checked the bags after tagging.
‘‘The primary one can detect any ferrous metals over 2.5 millimetres in length, and the needle we received from the consumer was over 40mm. No needles are used in our bread manufacturing line.’’
The metal detectors were regularly checked and independently calibrated and were functioning as they should, he said.
‘‘We know, from the tag, when the loaf was baked, and we have reviewed video footage from the production run and have found no abnormality.’’
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) had been notified of the report and the actions GWF was taking, the spokesperson said.
Both MPI and police said complaints of needles in food were infrequent and Dwight’s report would be taken seriously.
Dwight said he had been buying Ploughmans Bakery bread for years. He had not had any other issues and was impressed by how seriously GWF was taking his complaint.