Woman finds Redback spider in supermarket broccoli

A shocked Townsville woman discovered a redback spider in a head of broccoli she bought from a supermarket.

Tamahra Moore, 32, was chopping the broccoli at her home on Sunday when she noticed the full-grown female spider, reports the Townsville Bulletin.

“I was chopping all my vegies up for the week when I saw a flash of black and red, the bloody thing just crawled out,” Mrs Moore said.

“I would have probably been better off with takeaway, as I quite easily could have been bitten.”

Mrs Moore chopped off the stem of the vegetable and put the florets and the spider into a plastic container and returned it to Coles North Ward in Townsville.

“They got the produce manager who said he had heard about it but had never seen it. He asked to keep it so he could show the distribution centre team and I said ‘that’s fine’, I didn’t know what to do with it.”

Mrs Moore threw out the remaining broccoli and told the Bulletin she is now "apprehensive" about broccoli.

A Coles spokesman said its national quality team is following up with the supermarket and suppliers to examine the incident.