In an incident reminiscent of the 2018 strawberry tampering case, a Perth woman has found a needle in her garlic bread. We’ll be diving into what happened and whether we’re looking at the next nationwide needle crisis.

The woman says she unveiled a 4cm needle in her Woolworths-bought garlic bread, with her partner cracking his tooth on the dangerous find. The La Famiglia branded bread was purchased to weeks prior at Stirling Central Shopping centre in Perth, with the woman telling Perth Now that she hadn’t noticed the needle lodged in the bread before baking it.

But it was the lack of action from the manufacturer, Goodman Fiedler, and the supermarket that she says was the prompt to share her story publicly.

“Nothing has been done – no recall, no call back or nothing,” she said to Perth Now.

The Aussie said the manufacturers presented her with a $10 Woolworths voucher as compensation, but considering the severity of her partner’s injury and the risk involved, she told Perth Now it was not an appropriate measure, but rather “shocking customer service.”

For now, the manufacturer claims it appears to be an isolated incident, while Woolies told News.com.au they understood how concerning the event would have been for the customer and are willing to follow up on the incident.  

The incident comes well over four years since the strawberry tampering incident that sparked a nationwide panic as it spread from Queensland to other states and territories. Much like this garlic bread case, it started off as an isolated incident in the sunshine state with Queenslander Hoani Hearne ending up hospitalised and escalated into a devastating event for farmers who had to mass remove crops and sell their punnets at a reduced cost.

Eventually, a Berrylicious farm supervisor was arrested for the crime of tampering with the berries, but the charges were later dropped. The incident led to the government launching a million-dollar relief package for Aussie farmers. 

But the needle fiasco didn’t end there – another incident confirmed the government’s fears of copycat incidents. Needles and thumbtacks were found in an avocado, strawberries and bread in Adelaide Woolworths outlets, with police concluding the acts appeared to be deliberate in nature.

That leads us to the present day with fresh concerns that we could have another spate of food tampering on our hands – this time in an Aussie favourite; garlic bread. For now, the incident appears isolated, but it’s worth having a heightened awareness until we learn more.

Speaking of garlic bread – we know many of you love this classic entrée, but if you’ve recently quit sugar or are trying to eat more whole foods, it can be hard to find a recipe that ticks all the boxes. We’ve got just the thing – our garlic bread muffins are loaded with flavour, are easy to make and happen to be good for your gut too. Needles not included!

Cheesy Garlic Bread Muffins

Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients:

• 60 g butter, melted, plus more for greasing
• 3 eggs
• 125 ml milk
• 50 g Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 small (100g) carrot, finely grated with extra moisture squeezed out
• 1 small (100g) zucchini, finely grated with extra moisture squeezed out
• 2 cups self-raising flour

Stuffing:

• 50 g butter, at room temperature
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 80 g Cheddar cheese, cut into 2cm squares

Method:

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4 and grease 10 holes of a 12-hole muffin pan with butter.
   
   2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together butter, eggs and milk. Add in cheese, carrot, zucchini and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Add in the flour and stir together until you form a smooth, thick batter. Set aside.
   
   3. Make stuffing by mashing garlic and butter together.
   
   4. Place a heaped tablespoon of batter into each muffin hole. Place on a slice of cheese and a teaspoon of garlic butter. Top the rest of the muffins up with the remaining batter. Place into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.
   
   5. Cool for a couple of minutes in the tin before turning onto a wire rack. Pull apart to see the cheesy garlic filling.

Keen for more tasty recipes? Check out our Healthy Family Meals eBook for all those tasty meals you remember, minus the sugar!