A rat infestation has prompted at a Dunedin supermarket has prompted the Ministry for Primary Industries to investigate. Photo: Google Maps
An infestation of rats at a Dunedin supermarket has prompted an investigation by food safety officials for the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Woolworths New Zealand has confirmed a recent increase in "pest activity" at its Countdown Dunedin South store with a pest control contractor now making daily visits to the Andersons Bay Road premises.
The supermarket is ramping up its cleaning procedures, bolstered by "further deep cleaning" with additional bait stations being placed on site to counter the rat rampage.
A spokesperson for the supermarket chain said it had a comprehensive pest management plan in place to deal with the situation.
"Using our specialist pest control contractor we are confident that the measures we are taking are effective.
"Food safety is our absolute priority."
Woolworths said it was encouraging staff to report any pest activity, or signs of it, so it could adjust its plan of attack accordingly.
The ministry's New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said it had received complaints about the problem and were investigating.
"Food business are required to ensure the food they sell is safe and suitable for customers' consumption," he said.
"This includes pest management requirements. As part of this process, food businesses are registered and regularly checked by an independent verifier.
"The verifier will check there are systems in place to ensure pests cannot enter food businesses and the pests are managed if they manage to do so."
MPI is now working with the supermarket to determine the problem and to ensure it was rectifying it.
"If there is a problem, the food business is supported to make changes.
"If the food business does not put in place necessary corrective actions, [New Zealand Food Safety] can use enforcement tools to correct the situation."
The Otago Daily Times said an employee reported a handful of rats were first detected inside the store in October. Since then, they had multiplied and the supermarket was now "infested", they said.
The staff member, who spoke to the ODT under anonymity, said droppings and urine had been evident for some time, but the rats were now increasingly visible, even during business hours.
"We're selling food to the public that rats have been running over. It's a bloody disgrace. There are rats in the aisles. This is the 21st century, not Captain bloody Cook days."
Was that an effin' rat?'
The store declined an interview request from RNZ's Checkpoint. But customer Tammy Ung, who came face-to-face with one of the rats, was happy to talk.
"I was in the Countdown, I was with my two kids," she said, shopping for "fresh bread and a hot chicken and the deli salads".
"We were in the sort of fruit and veggie section and I just, just out the corner of my eye, caught the rat running sort of through the wine bottles. And I said quite loudly, 'Was that an effin' rat?'
"And next minute, I had one of the Countdown personal shoppers right beside me asking me what I had seen, and all of a sudden sort of, three male Countdown workers sort of reassuring me it was okay and apologising, and where did I see the rat?"
Ung said it was "definitely living its best life in there. It was huge - it would have been at least, I'd say, 25cm long, and then tail on top of that. It was quite a decent size. Not a little baby rat at all."
There was a change of plans - no fresh bread, hot chickens or deli salads.
"We just stuck to sort of sealed items after that."
Ung said she has not been back to that particular Countdown since, even if her kids found it exciting.
"You understand there might be the occasional one, but the fact that it hasn't been dealt with and it's a bigger problem than just one chubby one running around…"
She said the staff were "very apologetic, I guess probably trying to make sure I didn't go telling other people or posting it on social media".
