Waihi's Malcolm family said a sickening surprise was lurking in their tropical fruit salad mix this week.
Sharyn Malcolm's sons Rhyan, 15 and nine year-old Cameron were looking forward to a snack on Friday afternoon. On opening a Wattie's 425g Pick of the Crop tropical fruit salad can, they found a dead reptile.
"It was at the bottom of the can, definitely," Mrs Malcolm said. "The tail broke off it."
The tail's resting place was a mystery, and Rhyan initially told his mum. "I'm not sure if Cameron ate it or threw it in the rubbish bin."
The family first thought the animal was a lizard.
EcoGecko consultants principal ecologist Sarah Herbert said the animal was definitely a gecko. "You can see the lamellae [fine plates beneath the toes] and claws on the back foot."
The animal's somewhat putrefied state made identification tricky but Ms Herbert said the animal was most likely the spiny-tailed house gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus.
That creature is common in coastal Thailand and invasive in Mauritius. It had been intercepted in New Zealand but Ms Herbery said it was not established here.
Mrs Malcolm said she called a Wattie's customer service number to complain, but was rebuffed. "This woman blew me up for being a student and making prank calls," Mrs Malcolm said. "I'm a 39 year-old woman. What the hell do you think I'd be making a prank call to you for?"
Mrs Malcolm said she was told to send the sample back to Wattie's but the conversation degenerated, so she said she'd contact media.
The Wattie's representative allegedly told her: "Well in that case we'll just put down that you refused to send it in. We can't say that it came from our fruit salad."
Mrs Malcolm believed she bought the can in Waihi or Tauranga.
"I don't buy tinned fruit very often," Mrs Malcolm said. "I make the children eat vegetables."
She'd have an easier job convincing them to eat their veggies now -- the greasy gecko has put them off fruit salad.
Mrs Malcolm said she would contact the Ministry for Primary Industries.
"It doesn't happen very often but when it does happen we take it very seriously," a ministry spokesman said yesterday. "We'd advise the consumer to get in contact with the retailer, where they bought it. And then we'd expect the retailer to get in touch with the importer, so the importer could seek an explanation from the manufacturer."
Heinz Wattie's directors Carolyn Fox and Michael Pretty did not return emails and calls requesting the company's response before deadline.
In July, Sydney mother Artilina Castanares found a dead lizard rotting inside a tin of baby formula.
In March, New York woman Robin Sandusky, 31, found a dead lizard's head and one of its legs in a gourmet kale salad.
