Perth woman Julie Byrne warns locals after making shock discovery inside bag of frozen Woolworths blueberries
A Perth woman is warning other locals after she found a rusty nail in a pack of frozen fruit she bought from a major supermarket.
Julie Byrne made the shocking discovery after opening a 1kg bag of homemade frozen blueberries from Woolworths Harrisdale while baking pastries on Sunday afternoon.
“I opened the package of blueberries and looked inside and said ‘oh, there’s a branch there’… but then I said ‘the blueberries don’t have big branches’ and it started rattling around so I said ‘there’s a branch there’,” the Harrisdale resident told PerthNow.
He said the nail was several centimeters long and “very rusty”.
“We’re talking about longer than a pinky finger, like a long, big construction nail,” he said.
“It was crooked and very rusty, the color of a blueberry because it was standing with blueberries.”
Mrs Byrne’s husband returned to Woolworths Harrisdale to deliver fruit and made a report to the store manager.
The couple has since received a free bag of frozen blueberries.
Woolworths confirmed they were aware of the incident and had contacted the customer.
“We take food safety very seriously and maintain high standards of safety measures, including optical sorting systems and metal detection,” a spokesperson told The West Australian.
“This was an isolated incident and we are not aware of any other reports of a similar nature regarding this product at this time.”
Ms Byrne said it was a miracle she had not given blueberries to her pet dogs and urged others to be careful.
“Sometimes we pour fruit into a blender or pour it into dog bowls for dinner,” she said.
“We pour them straight from the packet into the dog’s bowl every night… which could have torn the insides of them and created an emergency.
“Luckily I was only making small pocket-sized pastry molds, but if it had been a larger pastry I could have put it in and it would have gotten stuck in the dough and if someone took a big enough piece it would have stuck in their throat.
“Things could have been different… I want everyone to be careful and understand that this could have been a lot worse.”
