Needle-in-strawberry scare spreads across Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia – Public fears about sewing needles concealed inside strawberries on supermarket shelves have spread across Australia and New Zealand as growers turn to metal detectors and the Australian government launches an investigation to restore confidence in the popular fruit.

The government of Queensland state, where the contamination scare started last week, has offered a 100,000 Australian dollar ($72,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for inserting needles into strawberries after six brands were recalled.

The scare had spread across the nation by Monday, with needles reported found in strawberries in all six Australian states. No injuries have been reported.

Two major food distributors in New Zealand announced they are taking Australian strawberries off their shelves because of the scare.