Industry in a jam: How the sorry strawberry sabotage saga unfolded
AS THE nation’s strawberry industry goes into meltdown thanks to heartless saboteurs, fingers of blame are being pointed in all directions, writes Kate Kyriacou.
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IT STARTED with two mates in a car and a punnet of strawberries. There’d been an oversupply and supermarket shelves were filled with the plump red fruit at bargain prices.
Somewhere in Brisbane’s northern suburbs, as the pair drove towards their destination, the man in the passenger seat took one from the punnet and bit in. He felt something sharp in his mouth, and, in reflex, swallowed.
Embedded in another strawberry was the other half of the needle he’d just ingested. The two men headed straight to the nearest hospital.
Later, a Facebook post was written, describing the incident. Photographs of the strawberry, a needle still inside, were shared. That was September 9. It was a warning to others that would, in time, snowball into a scandal so massive it now threatens to destroy the whole industry.
Because little more than a week later, Stephanie Chheang typed out another Facebook post. One that showed the sheer damage an act of sabotage can do.
“This is no doubt the worst thing to ever happen to my family,” she wrote. Below she posted a video. A tip truck at full tilt, strawberries flowing onto the ground, adding to a mountain of fruit so enormous it had taken three days to create.
Her mother and stepfather, she wrote, had spent years building the family business. They’d worked hard, invested all their money in planting and tending crops. And now, here they were, dumping thousands and thousands of strawberries. A sea of red against the browns and olives of the Australian bush.
The result of an act of sabotage that saw strawberries pulled from supermarket shelves. That saw everyone from Queensland’s chief health officer to the Prime Minister address the public. That saw a team of 100 police – including 60 seasoned detectives – tasked to find the culprit.
“They work hard to make the money for our family and to have these selfish individuals destroy it is just so upsetting,” Stephanie wrote.
“My mum works day through to the night, controlling the shed and her 250 employees, making sure her strawberries are packed to perfection. This will not stop my family from doing what they do best, if anything they’re going to do better.”
ANGELA Stevenson, a mother from Gladstone, bought a punnet of strawberries on September 9. They sat in the fridge for a couple of days before she took them out to use in her little boy’s school fruit break.
Later, she got them out again to feed to her baby daughter. She was cutting them up for the baby when her knife hit metal.
“(I) had a look and it was a needle embedded in the strawberry,” she said in a television interview.
News hadn’t broken of the Brisbane incident yet so she stared at it, bewildered. How on earth had a needle ended up in a strawberry?
Then she remembered packing her son’s lunch and grabbed the phone to call the school. She told them to stop him from eating the strawberries.
“They rang me back not even five minutes later and said, we’re a bit late, he’d already eaten his fruit break and took a bite out of one of the strawberries,” she said.
“He didn’t get hurt or anything. He didn’t get pricked.
“He obviously bit into it, felt it, pulled it out, told the teacher there was a needle in my fruit and everyone was sort of gobsmacked as to why, how did it get there?”
By September 12, the story had made the media and a joint press conference was called between Queensland Police and the Department of Health.
Two senior police officers joined Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeanette Young, in advising the public to throw out any strawberries purchased in the past week in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Sewing needles had now been found in three punnets. Another two in Victoria. Police had traced the sabotage to a farm in Queensland’s south east — strawberries grown and sold under the brand named Berry Obsession and Berry Licious. Later, a third brand would be named by Queensland authorities — Donnybrook Berries.
A product recall was underway. But police and the chief health officer were adamant any strawberries bought the following day on would be perfectly safe. The threat was over.
Nobody could have predicted what was to follow. Day by day, more and more calls came through from people discovering needles in their strawberries. Copycats, pranksters and attention seekers began to wreak havoc on strawberry farmers, pushing pins and needles into the fruit as it sat on the shelf.
In Maryborough, a woman on a motorised scooter rolled into her local supermarket and pushed a pin into a banana.
Police issued the woman, aged 62, with an adult caution and referred her to “appropriate support services”.
“The community is reminded that contaminating food is treated as a serious offence and a threat to public safety. All reported incidents will be investigated thoroughly,” a statement said.
PINS and needles were reportedly found in an apple and a mango. Schoolchildren claimed to have found them in strawberries — then admitted to lying once police got involved.
Specialist detectives in Queensland found themselves overwhelmed with copycat reports. Itinerant fruit pickers were rounded up and questions. Australian Border Force officials carted a couple away for working against the terms of their visas.
Strawberry farmers who’d invested a fortune in crops now couldn’t give them away. Supermarkets weren’t taking them. They were forced to, heartbreakingly, throw them out.
One Sunshine Coast farm was forced to lay off 100 staff.
Authorities in New South Wales named six brands they said were affected by acts of sabotage. Queensland had still only named three but public health warnings in Queensland supermarkets continued to avoid all six brands. Growers associations were furious.
Jennifer Rowling, from Queensland Strawberries, blamed the “mishandling of the issue by some authoritative spokespeople” and a “sometimes hysterical media” for the ruination of the industry.
“Fundamentally we are looking at a very small number of confirmed cases of actual tampering related to just three brands; all other reported cases have either been copycats or unsubstantiated claims,” Rowling said.
“This issue has attracted attention as far away as Russia and the UK, and as a result a number of our trade partners have either already blocked Australian strawberry imports or are talking about doing so.
“It should be acknowledged that much of the damaging commentary did not come from Queensland and we call on other state agencies to commit to supporting the industry and closely examine their own crisis communication processes.”
“To put this issue in context, the industry produces around 800,000 punnets per day and, apart from the original incident ten days ago where a consumer sought medical assistance, needles have been confirmed in only two other punnets, resulting in instructions by Queensland Health to withdraw three brands from sale.”
AS THE situation became dire, phrases like “food terrorists” were thrown around and everyone from the Prime Minister down weighed in.
State governments offered large rewards for information leading to the saboteurs. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk put up a million dollars to promote the industry and restore confidence among consumers. The Federal Government put up its own cash. Consumers were urged to buy strawberries but cut them up.
Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter strengthened laws surrounding food contamination. People caught tampering with food would now face longer sentences. A new law would be brought in to prosecute those making false statements about food contamination.
“The behaviour we are now witnessing is not a joke. It is not funny. It is a serious criminal offence, and we denounce it, and offenders of it will face very serious consequences,” he said.
But as the strawberry industry collapsed, it was the community that fought back. At farms on the outskirts of Brisbane’s north, cars lined up along the long drives, out the gates and down the road, to buy boxes of strawberries.
“This morning me and my little man travelled 30 minutes to a local farm and bought a big box of strawberries,” one woman posted online.
“They look and smell bloody amazing.”
Another wrote: “… how awesome! The line up to get to the strawberry farm this morning! Amazing to see the community supporting our farmers!”
TIMELINE
September 9
— Man eats strawberry contaminated by needle in Queensland, admitted to Sunshine Coast University Hospital with abdominal pain
September 11
— Another needle found in the North Queensland town of Gladstone, along with two cases in Victoria. A mother living at Kellyville Ridge finds a pin inside a Pink Lady apple.
September 12
— Woolworths removes the brands Berry Obsession and Berry Licious from its shelves in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. Pins found in punnets of strawberries sold at Coles Wingham and Coles Green Hills.
— Queensland Police announces an investigation into the contamination.
September 13
— Police and health authorities encourage families to cut up their strawberries before eating, and warn of copycat cases.
September 14
— Three needles discovered in a punnet of strawberries at Coles Engadine. Later that day Coles withdraws strawberries from sales in all states except Western Australia.
September 15
– NSW Police warns the people of NSW and says it has received reports of contaminated strawberries purchased at supermarkets at Tweed Heads, Taree, and Wingham.
September 16
– Contaminated strawberries found in Adelaide Hills.
September 17
– Coles begins supplying stores with strawberries again.
– Farmers begin dumping unsold strawberries, putting the $500 million industry at risk.
September 18
– Strawberry industry calls for calm in wake of tampering issue, and says the crisis has damaged the industry and cost growers millions of dollars.
– Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces $1 million in funding to boost he strawberry industry as farmers struggle following recent incidents of contamination.
September 19
– NSW Police begin investigating a complaint about a needle which was allegedly found inside a banana at a grocery store in Condell Park.
– A Coles customer shopping at West Gosford discovers a needle inside a mango, which was purchased two days earlier.
September 20
– NSW Police say they are DNA testing needles and packaging to find copycat offenders after more than 50 cases of fruit sabotage have been reported in the state.
– House of Representative and the Senate strengthen food safety laws, with criminals guilty of contaminating fruit now facing up to 15 years in jail.
– Woolworths stops selling sewing needles.
OTHER FOOD CONTAMINATION INCIDENTS:
2006 Top Taste Bakery
The bakery was the subject of food contamination incidents with a razor blade, metal rod, plastic glove and needle found in cake products. Four million cakes were destroyed and a bakery worker was charged. A man from the same bakery had already been charged over separate incidents of throwing cake-off cuts from the floor into a chocolate dip.
2006 Sizzler soup
Sizzler closed salad bars across Australia after rat poison was found in soup at its Brisbane Myer Centre franchise and in pasta sauce at its Toowong franchise. A woman was charged.
2000 Herron Pharmaceuticals
Herron recalled paracetamol products after Brisbane man Denis Fountain allegedly laced tablets with strychnine and demanded $50,000 from the company. He later died in jail.
1999 Cheesecake Shop
In 1999, an employee at a South Australian Cheesecake Shop laced a chocolate mud cake with homemade marijuana butter. The employee left the cake in a fridge, intending it for a mate, but it was inadvertently sold.
The cake was served at a birthday party, resulting in six people suffering hallucinations, vomiting and nausea, requiring medical attention. Two people were charged but were not convicted or fined.
1997 Arnott’s biscuits
Arnott’s was the subject of an extortion bid by a Queensland woman who threatened to poison Monte Carlo biscuits. A recall cost $22 million.
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