Grapes pulled off supermarket shevles after poisonous spiders found

Black widows and other poisonous spiders were found in two consignments of grapes. Photo / Thinkstock

The discovery of 10 poisonous spiders in bunches of imported grapes has prompted officials to pull all Mexican grapes from New Zealand shelves.

Five black widows were among the venomous arachnids discovered in a "small number of consignments" of Mexican table grapes, he Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said.

The spiders were found in several locations on both main islands.

"We have received 10 reports of spider detections - five are suspected black widows, one is a suspected brown widow, two are likely to be yellow sac spiders and a further two are as yet unidentified," MPI surveillance manager Brendan Gould said.

In response, both of the country's major supermarket chains had already withdrawn Mexican grapes from sale."

The ministry has taken this action as a precautionary measure to ensure that any spiders that may have entered the country on Mexican grapes are identified and destroyed."

Mr Gould said it was likely some grapes from the affected shipments had already been sold, so he warned people who had bought imported grapes to "be on the lookout".

All the spiders so far discovered were poisonous, but MPI said they were not generally considered a serious danger to humans.

However, their effects could be more serious for the very young or for people with a weakened immune system."

Importantly, these spiders do not usually bite unless disturbed," MPI said.

"We recommend that if people have recently bought imported table grapes, they should carefully check them."

Supermarket owner Foodstuffs was alerted to the discovery of black widow spiders in Mexican red and black grapes on Friday.

It said grapes from the batch suspected to have contained the spiders were taken from the shelves on Friday.

As a precaution, it removed all Mexican green, red and black grapes from its shelves on Monday.

A Countdown spokesman said MPI advised the supermarket chain to undertake a precautionary withdrawal of Mexican grapes from its South Island stores on Monday.

"As is our standard practice, we immediately complied with this withdrawal. As a further precaution, on MPI's instructions, today we removed Mexican grapes from sale from our North Island stores.

Countdown said no spiders had been sighted in grapes in its stores or distribution centres.

What to do

If you find a spider, bag the grapes and spider(s) and seal them, then contact the MPI hotline on 0800 80 99 66.

Anyone who believes they have been bitten by a grape-dwelling spider is advised to contact their doctor or seek information from the Ministry of Health's Healthline on 0800 611 116.