Woolies shopper finds deadly spider hidden in fresh produce

A Queensland Woolworths customer is warning people to check their produce after she found a deadly visitor in her fruit.

One supermarket customer had a lucky escape when she spotted a potentially deadly arachnid in a bag of grapes.

The Queensland woman took to the Woolworths Facebook page to share a photo of her black seedless grapes – with a redback spider weaving a web inside.

In the post, she warned others to look out for any creepy crawlies in their fresh produce.

“WARNING,” the woman wrote.

The redback had taken up residence in her grapes. Picture: Facebook

“I just bought a punnet of black seedless grapes from the Redbank Plains (Mountview) store and found a live redback spider in them.

“Tried to call the store multiple times and no one answered.”

She said she didn’t live nearby so she couldn’t just pop into the store to speak with staff about it.

While redback spider bites can kill, since an antivenom was developed in 1956, only one person has died from a redback bite in Australia (in 2016).

However, they can cause severe pain as well as nausea, vomiting, headaches and sweating.

In a response by Woolworths, they said it was a matter that was taken seriously by staff.

A Woolworths spokesperson told news.com.au: “We take food safety very seriously and work closely with our suppliers to ensure precautions are taken on-farm.

“We’re in contact with this customer and have requested further information so that we can look into this with our growers.”

Woolworths said they have contacted the customer. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

One social media user didn’t see the seriousness of the issue.

“Wow shocking – a bug/insect found in something that grows outdoors all exposed,” the commenter said.

“They should drown all fruit and veg in chemicals to make sure everything is destroyed.”

Meanwhile, someone claiming to be a former Woolworths produce manager said it happens a lot more than people would think.

“I once opened a box of bananas to find a live snake among them! It’s nature and unfortunately it will happen,” the commenter wrote.

“Woolies don’t however have enough time in the day for staff to completely go through everything. Back in my day we used to put signs on stock, such as grapes, telling people to use common sense and wash them before consuming to avoid instances such as this.”