LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — With various food contamination instances over the past several years, most consumers carefully check the expiration dates of the food items they purchase.

While Laurel resident Cathy Moore does that, she was surprised by a scary addition in a bunch of bananas she recently purchased.

Moore said she bought the bananas at the London Walmart store on Sunday and had been eating some of the fruit periodically. But two days after her purchase, Moore discovered a needle in one of the fruits.

“On Tuesday, my granddaughter and I were on our way somewhere,” Moore explained. “We hadn’t eaten anything yet so I told her we’d just eat a banana.”

But when Moore picked up one of the bananas to hand to her granddaughter, she felt something rub her hand. Upon checking the banana, she found a metal object protruding from the skin — an object that resembled a needle.

Leery of what the fruit might contain, Moore began contacting local agencies to have the item scanned by a metal detector. Once she learned Saint Joseph London did not conduct any scans on food other than during the annual Halloween Trick-or-Treat event, she then went to the Laurel Judicial Center.

“I knew they had a metal detector there,” she said. “I had them run the banana through it and they saw the needle. One of them thought it was a hypodermic needle, but someone else said it wasn’t hollow.”

Moore then went to Walmart and spoke with a manager concerning the needle in the banana. Although staff was surprised and concerned about the incident, Moore said she was offered more than what she paid for the bananas on the condition she leave the banana containing the needle with store officials.

Still concerned about the incident, Moore decided to keep the fruit and warn others in the community to check their food items carefully — especially items that have easy access such as fruit and vegetables.

“I don’t know where the needle might have come from. I doubt it would have been done by someone locally and it may have happened by accident. But in today’s time, it’s hard to tell,” Moore explained. “I just wanted to warn people to check their food.”

“I was getting ready to hand that banana to my 7-year-old granddaughter. I don’t want to think what might have happened if I hadn’t found the needle and she had bitten into it.”

Sherry Bryant, store manager for the London Walmart, said an inspection of the produce in the store was done immediately after Moore reported the incident. Bryant said the store found no other needles in that shipment of bananas.

“There were no other incidents in the bunch, which have all been sold or donated to local food banks since then,” Bryant said, “and we turned over a claim to the home office.”

Bryant said the local store gets their produce from the Walmart Distribution Center, but all shipments coming into both places are inspected before being put out for public consumption.

“Our produce has to have a country of origin and we can track every shipment we receive,” she said. “We have cameras that roll 24 hours a day, seven days a week and we inspect our produce.”

However, the London Walmart sells a large quantity of food items, including produce.

“We sell approximately 3,000 pounds of produce every three to four days,” Bryant said. “We do inspect our items and the consumer also needs to be aware of that and we can track any shipment we get.”

“Anytime anyone brings in something, we inspect our supply, track the shipment and file a claim with the home office.”



njohnson@sentinel-echo.com