Mum horrified to find needle in loaf of bread
A NSW mum was shocked after her young son found a sewing needle inside a slice of bread purchased from their local Coles supermarket.
Cherie said she came home to find her son “freaking out” after spotting something unusual while making toast.
“He’s gone, ‘mum, look! What would’ve happened if I’d bitten it’?” Cherie told Yahoo News, claiming that the two-inch needle was baked into the Tip Top Sunblest bread.
“There was a brown crust around the needle, so it was baked in,” she said.
When they pulled the needle out, Cherie said there was an “indentation” left in the bread, and placed the needle back in the bread next to the mark to show where it had been found.
“You could see exactly where it had been sitting.”
When she contacted the Bonnells Bay Coles store, Cherie was told to bring the loaf back and fill out a customer complaints form.
Unsatisfied, she instead took the bread to Morisset police station.
“They took photos of it, they could see where it was encrusted in the bread,” she said, adding that police have started an investigation.
She claimed the bag had no holes in it, and didn’t believe it had been tampered with.
Cherie said it was lucky her teenage son found the needle instead of a younger child.
“If anyone had given this to their baby and they’d taken a giant bite, you can only imagine what would’ve happened,” she said.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever bought that brand. I normally by the bakery bread, but they had none. I won’t buy that brand of bread anymore.”
Tip Top say loaf sabotaged after leaving factory
A spokesperson for Tip Top Bakeries told Yahoo News metal detectors are used in the production facilities, and believes the contamination was a result of tampering after it left the factory.
“Tip Top is attempting to liaise directly with the consumer and awaiting access to the product for forensic investigation,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“All Tip Top production facilities have in place robust metal detection technology used at the conclusion of the product manufacturing process to ensure no metal contaminants are present at the time of dispatch. Tip Top therefore believes the alleged product tampering did not occur at its manufacturing site.
“Further, Tip Top has checked all remaining bread at the store and has not been made aware of any other product tampering in New South Wales.
“Consumer safety is paramount at Tip Top and the business is taking this incident very seriously, now investigating its local product distribution process and liaising with relevant authorities.”
A Coles spokesperson confirmed they were aware of the incident.
“Coles takes the quality of all our products seriously. We have contacted the customer and will follow up with our supplier to investigate the matter.
“As always we encourage customers to return any item they’re not 100% happy with to their nearest store for a full refund or replacement.”
Last year, 230 cases of contamination were reported in the midst of a nation-wide scandal involving needles in strawberries, apples and other fruits.
The crisis forced growers to dump tonnes of produce after the fruit was pulled from supermarket shelves.
On Saturday, a teenager was charged after 20 needles were found sticking out of a Melbourne train seat.
A passenger received minor injuries after sitting on the chair.
