ACC figures indicate there have been more than 80 claims for accidents from Smeg knives given away in a hugely popular supermarket promotion.
New World distributed more than 1.2m Smeg knives in a recent supermarket promotion. Photo: Foodstuffs
More than 1.2 million knives were doled out by New World during the three-month campaign that began in November last year.
Stickers were given according to how much people spent at the supermarket that could be redeemed for the products.
People begged for the tokens on social media, they were hawked on TradeMe, and there were complaints to the Commerce Commission from those who missed out when the supermarket ran out of stock and the promotion ended.
There were also numerous reports of people cutting themselves on the knives, which came out of the box sharp.
ACC figures show there have been more than 13,000 claims for knife-related injures so far this year. There were about 19,000 each year in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
On average over the last three years, there were about 11,750 claims a year by men compared to about 7500 by women.
Foodstuffs NZ head of corporate affairs Antoinette Laird said people know that quality knives are sharp, and encouraged all customers to use all sharp objects appropriately and safely.
ACC injury prevention leader Kirsten Malpas said the number of injuries from knives could be cut by more people hitting pause.
"Around 90 percent of injuries are preventable. Slow down and take a moment to assess the risks," she said.
"If you can see it coming, you can stop it happening. Have a 'hmm' and decide if there's a safer way to do it."
The information comes from searches of ACC accident description forms for the words 'Smeg' and 'knife promotion', and variability in the detail provided by claimants means the data is not definitive.
Read some tips for how to use knives safely here.