Venomous spiders found in supermarket groceries

The Australian retail chain said deadly arachnids were an ‘industry-wide issue’

Shocked shoppers have discovered deadly redback spiders lurking in bags of grapes bought from two different supermarkets in Australia.

The purchases were made on Wednesday in a Coles supermarket in Runaway Bay, Queensland, and at another of the retail chain’s stores in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, 9News reported.

Retired policeman Andrew Bell told the outlet his daughter spotted a “very much alive” spider when she was enjoying the fruit. “The last thing you’re expecting is a goddamn redback in the grapes,” Bell said.

Tony Marshel, another unlucky customer, said the spider “wasn’t a huge one, but probably big enough to give a nip.”

“I was very concerned that mothers put bunches of grapes in their kids’ lunchboxes, that could prove pretty bad,” Marshel told 9News.

A Coles spokesperson called the spiders hiding in the crops “an industry-wide issue,” and said the retailer was doing its best to weed out “any pest presence.”

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Australians complained about finding spiders in groceries bought from an Aldi supermarket last month, and again from Coles in December.

Bites from female redbacks, close relatives of the black widow spider, can cause serious illness and have caused deaths, albeit rarely, according to the Australian Museum. Roughly 2,000 people are bitten each year in Australia and more than 250 are treated with antidotes. A bite can produce a wide array of unpleasant symptoms, from severe pain to nausea and headaches.

There were no confirmed deaths caused by redbacks for several decades until 2016, when a 22-year-old man from Sydney passed away after being hospitalized with an infection from a spider bite. The same year, another Australian was bitten on the penis while using a portable toilet and has since recovered.