Woolworths New Zealand has ordered a recall of beef mince sold throughout the North Island after a batch became contaminated with soft blue plastic.

The recall affects all 500g and 1kg packages of Woolworths’ 18% Fat Beef Mince with a best-before date of July 5, 2025.

In an email sent to customers yesterday, Woolworths asked those affected to avoid consuming the mince and instead return it to their nearest store for a full refund.

The mince was only for domestic consumption and has since been removed from store shelves.

On Facebook, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) informed shoppers that the product was being recalled as it “may contain foreign matter (blue plastic)”.

But the warning came too late for several Woolworths customers, who alleged they’d discovered the contaminants in their meal after cooking the mince for dinner the night before.

Some Woolworths customers found blue plastic in their meals before the recall was announced.

“Yup, got my mince yesterday and cooked [it] last night, was fun picking out little bits of blue plastic,” one person wrote, including a picture as evidence.

Another claimed the contamination had occurred several times in the past and wasn’t confined to the 18% Fat Beef Mince product.

“I only buy the 13% and we’ve found blue plastic in it too a few times in the last months. Just picked it out and kept cooking,” they said.

The recall affects all 500g and 1kg packages of Woolworths 18% Fat Beef Mince sold in the company's North Island stores. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

With the recall now in effect, customers went to the MPI for advice about what they should do if they’d already consumed the mince.

“Oh great, what happens if we have already eaten it?” one asked.

“Right, people consumed it, now what? You say you take your food safety seriously, clearly not,” a second said.

Others were less worried about potentially increasing their plastic intake, saying they would rather not waste food.

“Well, if it’s what you can afford to feed your whānau, that’s what we eat,” one person wrote.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger ... Algoods [sic], probably had worse in my mouth which we have all consumed,” said another.

“We eat so much plastic, a bit more won’t matter,” wrote a third.

- An earlier version of this story said the product affected had a best-before date of July 7. This has been corrected to July 5.