Foodie shares clever kitchen hack to check for needles in strawberries

For more than a week now Australia has been dealing with a food contamination crisis after shoppers found needles planted inside fresh strawberries.

The strawberry drama then triggered a number of suspected copycat acts, with one mother reportedly finding a nail embedded in an apple, while another woman claimed to have found a needle in a banana.

Farmers are struggling as a result of the fruit contamination, as supermarkets such as Coles and Woolies pulled affected brands from their shelves and customers avoided buying the fruit over fear of finding a metal object inside.

Now, one food-loving vegan has come up with a clever way to safely detect whether there are any harmful foreign objects hidden inside of your favourite fruit – using an egg slicer.

Read more: Schoolgirl admits to planting needle in strawberry.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn3Mp0_A2Fi/?taken-by=storyofyas

“Meanwhile, in Australia,” the post begins. “There’s some total A-holes who need to get smacked. I don’t know about the rest of you vegans out there but I found a handy use for my egg slicer a few months ago (which had gone unused for a couple of years now) and I have to say, it’s pretty useful right now.”

She added: “SUPPORT THE STRAWBERRY FARMERS, the strawberries don’t have the plague, in fact this one was damn tasty. The majority are not contaminated, and if you find any needles in a pack then you can report it of course.

“Just call me The Strawberry Girl.”

Read more: Woolworths pulls sewing needles from shelves amid strawberry crisis.

The post comes after shoppers were urged to keep buying and eating strawberries, with defiant Aussies even taking to social media to show they aren’t afraid of the needle contamination impacting the country’s produce earlier this week.

On Wednesday, one week after the initial recall of strawberries was issued in Queensland, Australians who are fed up with the impact the scandal is having on farmers and local fruit and veg stores around the country joined a new social media movement to support farmers and to ensure fruit doesn’t go to waste.

Basic strawberry jam recipe from 1967 1lb = 0.45kg @G_Parker #smashastrawb pic.twitter.com/LFeXWhQWRU

— Deborah Kennedy (@speakwrite1) September 18, 2018

When it comes to strawberries, people have joined the #SmashAStrawb campaign. The message is simple. Instead of throwing away strawberries, simply cut them up and turn them into tasty creations.

The campaign has taken social media by storm, with people all across the country sharing their quirky strawberry creations with others. One woman simply shared a strawberry jam recipe from the ‘60s with her Twitter followers as a way of using strawberries.

Are you still buying strawberries? Does the recent fruit contamination crisis worry you?