The Queensland farmer whose strawberries were embedded with needles in an apparent sabotage attempt is "devastated", the fruit growers' peak body says.
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Queensland Strawberry Growers industry development officer Jennifer Rowling said the farmer had stopped all production of the fruit in response to the urgent product recall issued on Wednesday.
"He’s going through hell, it’s an awful situation to be in," Ms Rowling said.
"It's going to be a tough time for him financially with his business, but what effect that is long-term ... hopefully that won't be too bad."
Punnets of Berry Obsession and Berry Licious strawberries were pulled from Woolworths shelves in Queensland, NSW and Victoria on Wednesday after reports of needles being found in strawberries.
One Queensland man reportedly swallowed half a needle.
On Wednesday a Gladstone woman narrowly avoided feeding contaminated strawberries to her son, posting photos of the fruit online.
Angela Stevenson warned friends that she had cut open a punnet of Berry Obsession strawberries when she found two needles embedded in the fruit.
Her young son had eaten one of the strawberries at school but it had not been tampered with.
She said she had reported it to police, who collected the fruit on Wednesday night.
Ms Rowling said reports from people associated with the farm and Queensland Police had indicated a disgruntled former employee might have put the needles in the fruit, but the association was waiting for the police to complete their investigation.
The incident follows an earlier plea from strawberry farmers for consumers to buy more strawberries as the market suffered a glut of the fresh fruit, dropping prices to $1 or less.
"Farmers are really nervous about it, obviously, and devastated something as awful as this would happen to the industry," Ms Rowling said.
"It's just a horrible situation for everyone, not just the farmer involved."
She urged anyone uncertain about the safety of their fruit to cut the strawberries in half before eating them.
"A lot of the social media that we're seeing, people are being very supportive and really - hopefully - understand that this is an isolated incident," Ms Rowling said.
"We'd just really love for consumers to see what it is and hopefully it doesn't affect the consumption of strawberries too much."
Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said strawberries would be back on shelves on Thursday and urged people to throw out any frozen fruit or fruit purchased in the past week.
Detective Superintendent Terry Lawrence said people responsible for contaminating the fruit could be charged with maliciously causing grievous bodily harm.
Anyone who believed they may have swallowed contaminated strawberries should call 13 HEALTH (1343 2584) or see their doctor.
