Needles found hidden in packs of green beans from Morrisons
NEEDLES have been found hidden inside supermarket green beans, prompting fears that the packs were deliberately sabotaged.
Morrisons issued a nationwide recall of the vegetables after two customers living 200 miles apart said they found sharp pins lodged inside.
Police are now looking into the claims, to establish whether there was any ‘malicious intent’ somewhere in the supermarket’s supply chain.
One customer said she discovered a needle in a packet of trimmed beans bought in Manchester. A second woman reported finding 12 hidden in untrimmed beans from a shop in Glasgow.
In both cases, the needles were placed in the middle of individual beans – and were only found when a vegetable was chopped or bitten into.
Morrisons recalled 170g packets of its own-brand Market Street trimmed beans, priced at £1. The recall affects bags with ‘display until’ dates of April 22, 23 and 24. They are thought to have been grown in Kenya.
Sarah Parry, a mother of three from Oldham, Greater Manchester, claimed she was horrified when she bit into a bean on Tuesday and felt a sharp pain.
The 41-year- old said: ‘ I felt something sharp in my mouth, and it had actually got stuck in my gum. I pulled it out and it was a needle. I honestly could not believe it. It was right in the centre of the green bean so I would have been none the wiser. No one would ever have been able to tell it was there.’
Mrs Parry, who has a four-yearold daughter and two sons aged 13 and 22, contacted the supermarket which asked her to return the beans.
She was offered a £5 gift card for the inconvenience.
The catering assistant at North Manchester General Hospital added: ‘I didn’t want a £5 gift card, I just want to know what it is and how it got there.
‘It was stuck right into my gum so I’m going to have to go and get checked out now. My immune system isn’t very strong at the minute either as I have
‘It was stuck right into my gum’
just gotten over breast cancer. I am just thankful that it happened to me and not one of my children. They could have swallowed it and who knows what could have happened.’
She added: ‘The needle itself was around two- and- a- half inches and a bit thicker than a normal sewing needle. Because I threw the others away straight after, I wouldn’t know if there were others but they could have been in the rest of the pack.’
Another customer, Margaret Lynch, said she found 12 similar metal pins when she cut into her green beans last Saturday, April 15. She had bought them from a Morrisons in Glasgow, although they do not appear to be the same trimmed variety which is subject to the recall.
Mrs Lynch, 49, who also works in a hospital, posted an image of the beans – which she later returned to the store – on Facebook. ‘If I hadn’t seen them when I was cutting off the ends, I could have injured my mouth,’ she said. ‘The ones I bought came on a stalk, so I can’t imag-
ine this was done by another customer, I think it’s from the growers because they were hidden right inside. There’s no way a customer could have got in there and put things inside without more obvious warnings.’ Mrs Lynch added: ‘ When I went in on Sunday, they had taken them all off the shelves ... they’ve basically told me it’s a major investigation. ‘However when I spoke to the manager who had looked through them, they said nothing was found in the rest.’
A Morrisons spokesman said: ‘We have been made aware of two incidents involving metal being found in two packets of green beans. The health and safety of our customers is our top priority, so as a precaution, we are recalling the products and are continuing with our investigation. The relevant authorities have been informed and we are also talking to the two customers.’ The supermarket declined to confirm where the beans were packaged, saying it was ‘not disclosing details of the supply chain while the investigation is in progress’.
Asked if deliberate sabotage was one line of enquiry, Morrisons said that was ‘ a question for the police to answer’.