Strawberry sabotage all too easy to copy
The spate of copycat incidents of needles being placed in fresh fruit that has followed from what was at first an isolated case stemming from two farms on the Sunshine Coast is a worrying trend.
Needles were initially found in strawberries coming from two farms in Queensland, but now there have been incidents reported across NSW, Victoria and even WA.
Despite a police investigation no-one has yet been charged, apart from a young boy who was caught placing needles in strawberries as a prank.
The complex logistics of tracking down everyone who touches fresh produce along its supply chain makes finding the culprit almost impossible. And that is compounded by the rise in false claims of contaminated strawberries, with 100 people having gone onto social media to report incidents without any way of checking their validity.
With luck this almost virus-like hysteria will blow over as quickly as it came, and those growers unlucky enough to have been financially hurt will be able to pick up the pieces again with the help of government aid.
What it does show is how vulnerable our food supply chain is to malevolent acts. What can be done to protect it any more than the current deterrents do is debatable.
Sheridan Randall, 20th September 2018
