Added extras no-one wants
Condoms have been found in potato chips, used chewing gum in a kebab and medication nestled in dried cranberries. They’re just some of the baffling things Kiwis have plucked out of 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.
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.’’
Various kinds of metal and plastic were the most common findings in food, according to material obtained through the Official Information Act.
Such contamination led recalls.
Items such as the condom found in potato chips were likely to have been a prank, MPI manager of food compliance Melinda Sando said.
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.’’
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