Woman finds dead spider on pie, Drury Breadbasket bakery admits error, apologises

An Auckland woman was shocked to find a dead spider baked onto the bottom of her pie near a small pastry hole - but only after she took a bite.

The unfortunate incident has seen the South Auckland bakery issue an apology to the customer. Its owners are also puzzled at how the spider managed to survive a recent fumigation at the premises.

Papakura resident Kirstiè told the Herald she bought a potato top pie from the Drury Breadbasket bakery last week.

She started devouring the savoury lunch treat made on the premises when she suddenly lost her appetite.

“I took it out [of the bakery bag] and I happened to get a glimpse of something dark on the back and to my disgust saw it was a huge spider,” she said.

“I lost it and just started spitting.

“I yelled out to my kids to bring their food back to me, showed them, and then asked them to feed that to the dog. I also made them throw away their cupcakes.”

Kirstiè called the bakery to tell them and ask for a refund but was only offered replacement food.

“I wasn’t willing to go back and get more of their food. They’d think I’d go eat there again,” she said.

An Auckland woman received the shock of her life after she found a dead spider on the bottom of her pie after taking a bite. Photo / supplied

“I can’t think of a worse surprise for a Tuesday morning. Makes me feel sick thinking about it.

“I will forever check all pie bottoms after that and I think I’ll stick with pies in a packet for a while.”

The bakery owner told the Herald they had no idea how the spider made its way into the bakery and on to the pie.

“We feel so sorry about the mistake. We spoke to the lady and asked her to bring the pie back and investigate what happened,” she said.

“She was quite mad at the time and chose to ignore us and post the pie picture on the community page.”

The owner said the accident occurred not long after the bakery reopened from the Christmas break.

“Before the holiday we hired Rentokil and after the holiday we did another deep clean before opening,” she said.

“I know it was a mistake from us and I told all my staff to be careful and clean the night before.

“It has never happened before. We really apologise for this mistake and we are trying to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

In April last year, a shopper discovered a cockroach in a sealed block of cheese bought from a Whangarei Woolworths.

Ian Score bought the 1kg block of Woolworths branded Everyday cheese - touted to have a sweet, mild, and buttery flavour - for about $10 from the supermarket chain’s Okara Park store, in Whangārei, on March 23.

A few nights later, he opened the cheese for the first time and peeled back the wrapper to cut a slice. A few moments later he peeled back the wrapper a little further to cut some more.

That’s when he got an unpleasant surprise: the dead cockroach—0.9cm long by 0.45cm wide — was suddenly exposed. It was embedded in the top of the cheese, hidden under the peel-off cover wrap.

David Williams is an Auckland-based Multimedia Journalist who joined the Herald in 2023. He covers breaking news and general topics.

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