Antara Group, owner of Gate Pa New World in Tauranga, has been fined $4500 for selling contaminated mince under the Food Act, the New Zealand Herald reported. 

The contamination incident occurred in October 2019 at the supermarket’s in-house butchery where an unsold steak was accidentally minced with an absorption pad from the packaging, causing fragments of plastic to contaminate the batch. 

The mince was then sold to customers, one of which later reported finding plastic in their product to the store. The batch was recalled but non of the customers returned their purchases. 

Iain Thain, a lawyer representing the company, said the contamination created no risk to the consumers as the foreign matter in the batch was food-grade material and in tiny little pieces. 

“It was human error,” Thain said. “ The butcher involved had over 25 years of experience – it’s just one of those things that unfortunately happened.”