The added extras no-one wants

Condoms have been found in potato chips, used chewing gum in a kebab and medication tablets nestled in dried cranberries.

They’re just some of the baffling things Kiwis have found in food over the past five years.

And while some of it boils down to manufacturers’ blunders, it can also be malicious and costly, industry bodies say.

Last year’s needles-in-strawberries saga spurred a call from National MP Nathan Guy for harsher punishments for anyone intentionally contaminating food.

But Minister of Food Safety Damien O’Connor said cases of deliberate contamination were usually isolated acts.

‘‘When someone decides to contaminate food it’s usually a one-off by a person who is angry, disturbed or attention-seeking and they are unlikely to be thinking of the penalties as they do it.’’

Guy, however, said it was important New Zealand was not viewed as a ‘‘soft touch’’.

Guy’s member’s bill – proposing to increase the maximum jail term for intentional contamination from 10 to 14 years – has the support of retail, horticulture, food and farming industry bodies.

It comes after a crisis in Australia last September, when dozens of punnets of strawberries were contaminated with needles, forcing supermarkets to advise consumers to cut up strawberries before eating them.

Copycatting has sparked concern for the industry.

But raising the penalties was not likely to help, O’Connor said.

‘‘An example was brought to my attention recently where two 8-year-olds admitted to inserting needles into strawberries as a joke. Raising penalties would not have deterred these children.’’

Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman said while copycats were a concern, harsher sentences were bound to help. Australia had seen a ‘‘frenzy’’ of copycats and growers were worried about the same happening in New Zealand.

The needle crisis in Australia led to growers taking a $12 million hit in income, according to west.com.au.

Plasters, cockroaches and a gecko are among the other strange and disgusting things Kiwis have found in their food over the past five years.

Various kinds of metal and plastic were the most common findings, according to material obtained through the Official Information Act. Such contamination led to 41 recalls.

Items like the condom found in potato chips were likely to have been a prank, MPI manager of food compliance Melinda Sando said. And airgun pellets in strawberries were found to have wound up there because guns were being used for pest control.

But the origins of other objects – like a $1 coin found in yeast spread or 20 cents in coleslaw – remained a mystery.

‘‘There’s a couple where we just haven’t been able to determine where it has come from.’’