Sharp reaction to yoghurt find

ROBERT CHARLES/Taranaki Daily News

UNLISTED INGREDIENT: Merial Mitchell shows the 30mm knife blade she discovered in a container of yoghurt she bought from New Plymouth's Pak 'n Save this week.

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When Merial Mitchell opened a container of yoghurt for dessert she discovered an unexpected ingredient – a rusty knife blade.

The 86-year-old Inglewood woman and her daughter Daryl Boys had bought the one litre Strawberry Yoplait from New Plymouth's Pak 'n Save supermarket on Tuesday night and were going to have it with sliced banana.

"Yoghurt doesn't usually come with its own knife," Mrs Boys said.

The 30mm long disposable knife blade had pierced the container's lid and was barely noticeable until it was opened.

"If that had dropped into the yoghurt, you wouldn't have noticed when you dished it out and it could have got halfway down your throat," Mrs Mitchell said. "A cut from that could be potentially very dangerous."

Mrs Boys rang the supermarket yesterday to complain but nobody ever rang her back.

"It is obviously a Pak 'n Save thing, when they've opened the case. They would have known that it happened because they would have had to go and get a new knife," she said.

"If your blade snapped off surely you would go looking for it – we are talking about food products here."

The women were angry and annoyed nobody was taking responsibility.

"Somebody has got to be answerable for something like that, someone could have got seriously hurt.

"They should stand up and acknowledge it's happened instead of totally ignoring us and not ringing back," Mrs Boys said.

Pak 'n Save owner Alan Melody would not comment yesterday.

"I'm not prepared to say anything until I know the facts and have had the opportunity to talk to these people," Mr Melody said.

He said he would be contacting Mrs Mitchell today.

- © Fairfax NZ News