Spider forces grape recall

The bite of the spiders found in imported grapes causes a pain "like having your skin ripped off".

Supermarket chains are pulling Mexican grapes from their shelves after the discovery of 10 venomous spiders since Friday.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is investigating and says it believes five of the spiders were black widows, one a brown widow and two were yellow sac spiders. All of those species were venomous.

It's looking into the identity of the two other spiders.

MPI says they could be dangerous to people who come into contact with them but did not pose a threat to New Zealand's horticultural industry.

Foodstuffs corporate PR director Antoinette Laird has confirmed one spider was discovered in grapes at New World Rolleston and other Foodstuffs stores have reported similar finds.

She says Foodstuffs has been working with MPI on the issue.

"Foodstuffs has taken a very conservative approach to withdraw all affected product as customer safety is our top priority," says Antoinette.

Foodstuffs was alerted on Friday to the potential discovery of black widow spiders in Mexican Desert Pride Red and Black grapes, which has since been confirmed.

In a statement, Foodstuffs said product from the suspected batch was withdrawn from sale on Friday and on Monday, all Foodstuffs stores in both the north and south islands have withdrawn all Mexican green, red and black grapes from the shelf.

Additional steps have been required for all importers of grapes from Mexico to show evidence of product fumigation before accepting them into stores for sale.

Foodstuff says its customers should inspect and wash all grapes before consuming them.

A Countdown spokesperson says MPI requested Countdown, owned by Progressive Enterprises, withdraw all grapes from Mexico from sale. They had been distributed to Countdown stores in the South Island.

Countdown immediately complied with the withdrawal and removed Mexican grapes from sale from North Island stores on Wednesday.

The spokesperson says no spiders have been sighted as yet and they would implement more extensive inspections of the grapes.

MPI also requested additional fumigation.

No details were given as to where in New Zealand the spiders were discovered.

MPI has been contacted for comment.

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1 comment

Reg M

Posted on 09-07-2015 13:12 | By RegM

Why??? aren't all Fruit and vegetable imports fumigated.


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