Pin buried in strawberry shocks teacher

A shocked Tauranga family found a pin in a strawberry on Thursday night as they were cutting up fruit for their children’s meal.

The matter has been referred to police and the supermarket where the strawberries were purchased has pulled the remaining stock from its shelves.

Michael Rayner said his partner was chopping the strawberry with a knife in their Matua home about 6pm when she found the silver pin buried inside the fruit.

The couple had been preparing the strawberries for their two children, aged 3 and 7.

Rayner, a 45-year-old teacher, said he immediately called the Pak’nSave Cameron Rd store where the strawberries were bought, as well as police.

Police said they had referred the find to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

Rayner said the strawberries were in a punnet and the pin was “completely hidden inside the strawberry“.

“She was cutting them into pieces and literally hit the pin.

"What kind of sicko does that? We were just stunned to be honest."

Michael Rayner

“What kind that?” he said.

“We were just stunned to be honest. It was like ‘oh my goodness, we have seen this in the news and now I am looking at it myself’. It was definitely very surprising.”

He hoped the store could use CCTV to track down the offender.

“I’m not sure how far back they can trace things, but hopefully they will be able to catch the person and make it so they get enough of a sentence that no one else will try something this stupid.”

In future, Rayner said he would grow his own strawberries.

Rayner said he immediately of sicko does called Pak’nSave and police, who instructed him not to pass the product back to the supermarket. Instead the contaminated food would be collected by MPI staff.

The Herald contacted the North Island brand named on the punnet. A spokeswoman was not aware of the find and referred questions to Strawberry Growers New Zealand.

“I’m not going to comment. I don’t believe it. I just think the media should not report it because that’s when you get copycats.”

Foodstuffs NZ spokeswoman Antoinette Laird said the company was “aware of an issue with a customer finding a pin/needle in a punnet of strawberries” purchased at its Tauranga Pak’nSave store.

The remaining product has since been removed from the store’s shelves.

“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.”

MPI said it had spoken to the complainant and was working with Pak’nSave to investigate the incident.

The discovery is the latest in a string of disturbing incidents involving needles in fruit.

A needle was found inside a punnet of strawberries purchased at a supermarket in the South Island last month.

Police investigating the incident said the fruit was purchased in South Canterbury’s Geraldine.

In September three needles were found in three strawberries in one punnet at Countdown St Lukes in Auckland.

An MPI spokeswoman said then they were aware of a report of needles being found in imported Australian Choice brand strawberries at the store.

Customers were advised to return the brand as a precaution, though the brand was not implicated in the Australian strawberry contamination and associated recalls over the Tasman earlier this year.

Police are also investigating a needle found in a capsicum bought at a Countdown store in Tauranga last month.