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SSS Strawberries in Bundaberg, Queensland are freeze drying surplus fruit
Family company director Gina Dang said it's better than wasting unsold produce
They are freeze drying strawberries with technology used for astronaut food

By Stephen Johnson For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 01:02 EST, 19 November 2018 | Updated: 03:16 EST, 19 November 2018

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Australian strawberry growers have found a novel way to stop consumers ever having to find a needle in their fruit.

Even before the national strawberry needle contamination crisis hit the $500 million industry, Queensland growers were dumping surplus stock because of overproduction.

A family-owned business from Bundaberg, a four-hour drive north of Brisbane, has invested in a solution which involves freeze-drying tonnes of strawberries.

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Australian strawberry growers have found a novel way to stop consumers ever having to find a needle in their fruit (pictured is a needle discovered in South Australia)

Gina Dang, a director of SSS Strawberries, said freeze drying strawberries using space food technology was much better than dumping tonnes of unsold produce, including odd-sized and weather-damaged fruits that were unfit for supermarkets.

'That's why we're looking for a value-added product to see if we could use all of this waste as well as maybe even help the industry,' she told the ABC's Landline program.

'Us is just one. Many other growers around the regions and around the country have the same kind of waste.'

SSS Strawberries donates its surplus fruit to charity and drought-relief drives but still has fruit it can't give away.

Gina Dang (centre) a director of SSS Strawberries, said freeze drying strawberries using space food technology was much better than dumping tonnes of produce that could not be sold

To solve this problem, it has stockpiled strawberries at a freeze-drying warehouse on the Sunshine Coast, a two-hour drive south of Bundaberg, trucking 40 tonnes of produce from their farm.

They have also invested in Queensland Cold Logistics's Yandina-based factory, which uses technology originally pioneered to make food for astronauts.

Michael Buckley, the founder of Freeze Dry Industries, is aiming to create products that can be more widely exported.

'It's got broad application in a variety of uses, not just foods but supplements, cosmetics, all sorts of different applications,' he said.

Last week labour hire manager My Ut Trinh (pictured) was arrested after a two-month police investigation linked her DNA to the first discovered strawberry needle

Frozen strawberries can be dried into a powder or kept whole to be used in breakfast cereals or as chocolate-dipped desserts.

Last week a 50-year-old labour hire manager, My Ut Trinh, also known as Judy, was arrested after a two-month police investigation linked her DNA to the first discovered strawberry needle.

Police allege it was found in a punnet from Queensland's Berrylicious and Berry Obsession farm at Wamuran, north of Brisbane.