Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor asks Kiwis not to overreact to strawberry needles

The Government is asking New Zealanders not to overreact, after a needle was found in a punnet of strawberries in Auckland earlier this week.

The Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor says the Government is concerned with the development but says it's "just one punnet of strawberries where some idiot has put something into it".

"We don't want to overreact to this; it just gives fuel to the idiotic ideas of other people at times."

On Sunday, Countdown withdrew the Australian Choice brand of Strawberries from its shelves after needles were found in a punnet in their St Lukes, Auckland, supermarket.

O'Connor was briefed by NZ Food Safety on the situation last night and again this morning. They are now in the process of conducting a "thorough inquiry" into finding "the idiot who did this".

"We're really concerned about all food safety issues – clearly this is a criminal act more than a food safety act."

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the police will be working with Countdown to ensure situations like this do not occur again.

O'Connor says Countdown could have done more to prevent the situation, given the warnings he believes it received in light of the situation in Australia.

"Obviously the supermarket in question could have done better to check and that's one of the things they will be looking at in the future, I'm sure."

He says with incidents as "crazy" as the one in Australia, he would have expected a "higher level of scrutiny" involving the importation of any similar products into New Zealand.

O'Connor says at this stage, he cannot say whether or not the needle came from Australia, or was placed in the punnet in New Zealand.

"I'm hoping no New Zealander would be such an idiot."

But he says obviously the copycat situation in Australia may have been the cause of this incident.

O'Connor is echoing the advice of Countdown in asking all consumers of strawberries that have come from Australia to cut them open before eating them.

He says New Zealand strawberries are perfectly safe to eat, but the incident has "heightened the level of awareness of potential idiotic behaviour".