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Updated
November 11, 2018 22:34:03
A 50-year-old woman has been arrested and charged over the strawberry contamination scare that began in south-east Queensland in September.
Key points:
- Queensland Police launched nationwide investigation to find those responsible for spate of sharp objects in fruit
- More than 100 incidents of needles were reported around the country in September
- The charge is linked to one of the original cases involving the company Berry Licious
She is expected to face the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday after being charged on Sunday night with seven counts of contaminating goods.
Police will allege the woman intended to cause harm by planting needles in strawberries.
Queensland Police described the national investigation into the contamination as “complex” and “extensive”.
The ABC understands the charge is linked to one of the original cases involving the company Berry Licious.
Queensland Strawberry Growers Association spokeswoman Jennifer Rowling said the widespread contamination had a “crippling impact” on the industry, but was grateful to police for the thorough investigation.
“The Queensland police have been nothing but brilliant the whole way through this thing,” she said.
“They had a taskforce of more than 100 police involved so it’s really great to see their efforts have come through.”
Australia’s strawberry industry was brought to its knees after several punnets of strawberries were found contaminated with sewing needles.
As police launched their investigation into strawberry producer supply chains, consumers were urged to cut up their strawberries before eating them.
Police and Queensland Health warned consumers to dispose or return punnets of two brands of strawberries, Berry Licious and Berry Obsession, which were sold in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
However, the alleged contamination spread beyond the two brands in what authorities believed could be copycat crimes or unsubstantiated claims.
More than 100 incidents of needles were reported around Australia in September, as well as an isolated case in New Zealand.
The hysteria forced growers to dump truckloads of stock amid the crisis, sparking the social media campaign #SmashaStrawb to support farmers.
Children among contamination victims
Queensland authorities notified the public of the safety risk on September 12, three days after Brisbane man Hoani Hearne was hospitalised for eating half a needle from a punnet of Berry Obsession strawberries.
Mr Hearne said he put the whole strawberry in his mouth and then felt something very wrong.
“I bit into it, felt it break, my knee-jerk reaction was to swallow, and what was left over was half of a sewing needle,” he said.
Mr Hearne went straight to hospital after biting the needle but was discharged. He was later admitted to emergency at a different hospital after suffering severe abdominal pains.
Angela Stevenson from the central Queensland town of Gladstone also found a needle inside fruit in a Berry Obsession punnet on September 11, but not before her nine-year-old son bit into a contaminated strawberry that he had taken to school.
“Luckily he’d pulled it back out of his mouth and told the teacher there was a needle in his strawberry,” she said.
On September 14, Queensland Health announced strawberries from Donnybrook farms north of Brisbane were being pulled from supermarket shelves after three incidents.
In the following days, contaminated punnets were purchased at supermarkets in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia.
At least seven brands were affected, including Donnybrook Berries, Love Berry, Delightful Strawberries, Oasis brands, Berry Obsession, Berry Licious and Mal’s Black Label strawberries.
The Queensland and West Australian Governments both offered $100,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced tougher fruit-tampering laws that would see those convicted face greater jail time.
Sharp objects were discovered in fruit as recently as Friday, in the Adelaide suburb of Salisbury and in South Australia’s Clare Valley.
Farmers dumped stock as strawberry prices plummeted
Shoppers fearful of both the original and copycat contamination shunned strawberries during peak strawberry season, sending prices crashing.
Some supermarkets reduced and cancelled orders because customers stopped putting strawberries in their baskets, regardless of where they were grown.
The wholescale price of the fruit halved to 50 cents per punnet below the cost of production, forcing growers to dump tonnes of the fruit.
The industry’s desperation inspired the social media campaign #SmashaStrawb.
People shared their inventive recipes to use strawberries — everything from cakes to badtails — and urged others to support farmers.
Dozens of federal and state politicians also posted videos and pictures of themselves eating cut up strawberries.
Topics:
law-crime-and-justice,
food-safety,
consumer-protection,
qld
First posted
November 11, 2018 17:10:55
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