A potentially lethal pin has been found inside a Woolworths microwave meal served to a child, with the supermarket giant launching an investigation into the alarming discovery.
A furious Sydney mum told Daily Mail her 10-year-old daughter found the 4cm dressing pin inside her packaged spaghetti bolognese.
She said there were no holes in the packaging that would indicate the pin had been inserted by a shopper in-store, and must have been put in there before it was sealed.
‘My daughter just screamed “what the hell” and then glared at me,’ the mother-of-two said.
‘I thought it must have been a hair or something then she plucked the pin out of her bowl.’
The mum said she investigated the contents of the microwave dinner but found no other foreign material.
She reported the shocking find to Woolworths and was told the company would follow up with its supplier.
The mum was shaken by the thought of what could have happened had her daughter not spotted the pin before starting to eat the meal.
‘I am so angry. If it had been in my five-year-old son’s bowl he wouldn’t have noticed it,’ she said.
‘And I am so distracted when it comes to dinner time I wouldn’t have either.
‘My daughter plays with her food – for once that’s proved a good thing.’
The mum said the pin was so large and sharp it would have caused injuries even if it had not been swallowed.
‘It would puncture the roof of your mouth or slice your tongue for sure. It would have been a trip to emergency,’ she said.
A Woolworths spokesperson told Daily Mail : ‘We take food safety very seriously and we’re currently looking into this with our supplier as a matter of priority.’
‘We have not received any other complaints of this nature and believe this to be an isolated incident.’
The incident echoes the contamination crisis which rocked the strawberry industry in 2018 when needles were found lodged in dozens of packaged fruit.
The first incident was reported in September 2018 and a further 230 cases were reported nationwide, impacting 68 strawberry brands.
Forty-nine brands were Queensland-based. In Queensland, 77 incidents were reported. Of those, 15 were believed to be a hoax or a false complaint.
At the time, it was estimated that the farm gate value of Queensland strawberries had declined by 8 per cent for the 2018-19 financial year, worth about $12million.
A farm supervisor was arrested but charges against him were dropped due to the unlikelihood of securing a conviction.