By Ashley Young-
Sainsbury’s must explain how a venomous spider found its way into a bag of supermarket banannas, after it fell out of a customer’s bag.
A taxi driver revealed how a Brazilian wandering spider – the world’s most venomous – fell out of his bag of supermarket bananas, and the arachnid is now being examined to determine if it is the dangerous variety.
After Joe Stein, 37, opened his bag of bananas on Wednesday morning, purchased in West Wickam he discovered a “dark mass” hanging from the fruit. The two-inch long spider that was still moving and twitching.
Joe, from Beckenham, Kent, has attracted some media interest since the discovery of the spider.
He told The Eye Of Media.Com: “I was kind of shocked when I noticed the spider, I had to take a good close look to confirm what I was seeing.
I could see his big, hairy legs.
“It was a bit shocking!”
‘I threw the whole bag in the outside bin, shouting to his girlfriend Natasha Gooda, 39, to not enter the kitchen.
” I was shocked, and my girlfriend was a bit shocked, to find out it was a venomous spider if alive.
“Luckily I think it was dead, but it was enough to make us both jump and feel on edge.
“I decided it was important to make people aware and to be careful.”
The taxi driver had sliced up the bananas to have with his porridge the next morning at about 10am, but decided to check the bag first.
He said: “You see now and then articles about situations like this, and I was lucky, I guess, because I thought I better check it.
“Opened the bag, everything fine, turned the bananas over and all I saw was this huge dark mass hanging on to the bananas.
“It was a spider and it started to move so I shouted to my girlfriend ‘don’t come in the kitchen!'”
He dumped the bananas and their hitchhiker into a plastic bag and threw it in the bin outside.
The couple contacted their friends and family to inform them about the ordeal, and decided to keep the spider to report it.
“We Googled it and it looks 99% like the wandering spider.”
Toxic
The Brazilian wandering spider, or Phoneutria fera is toxic to the nervous system, causing symptoms such as salivation and an irregular heartbeat.
The venom can also be known to cause a long, painful erection to human males.
Stepdad-of-one Joe said: “I saw a few pictures, it looked identical; the big hairy legs, the big abdomen with the little humps coming out and a black line.
“I was a bit shocked to find out it’s one of the most venomous and dangerous spiders in the world.”
Joe and mental health nurse Natasha contacted Sainsbury’s who told them to send the spider to them for further investigation.
The bananas are in the bin, but the spider remains in a plastic wrapper outside their home.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told The Eye Of Media.Com: “We are investigating the incident , but can’t explain how the spider got in the banana. We’re in touch with the customer to apologise for their experience.
“Incidents like this are extremely rare and we have processes in place to prevent them.”
Sainsbury may not know how rare incidents like these actually are because not all customers would keep a spider found in food and bring it to public attention in the same manner as the taxi driver.
This publication has asked Sainsbury to reveal the findings of its investigation once completed.
Only last year, a venomous spider and spider eggs was found in bunches of bananas bought in Tesco.
The spider was also considered to be a Brazillian spider, eaising serious questions as to how these spiders get into our bananas.