This chef has a clever way to deal with Australia's strawberry crisis

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or better yet, make strawberry jam.

As food safety fears grip Australia, a chef in Melbourne has come up with a clever way to help with massive food wastage.

Brooke Nugent, who runs a small catering business, bought unwanted strawberries from a supermarket and turned them into 100 jars of strawberry jam.

"This whole situation is just devastating, farmers are losing their whole livelihoods because of a few people's selfishness!" she wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Sept 19).

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The chef has put the jam up for sale at A$5 each and promised that they are needle-free. Profits from the sale of strawberry jam will go to affected farmers, Nugent said.

Her post went viral within hours, garnering over 1,400 reactions with many netizens showing support for the initiative. All 100 jars of jam were snapped up in a day.

Nugent said in a subsequent Facebook post that she will be making more jam once she gets more strawberries.

"I know I'm not making a huge difference, I'm just one person. But if everyone brought 10 punnets and made some jam surely together we can make a difference," she told 9News.

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Meanwhile, the police are investigating over 100 reports of sewing needles found in strawberries.

Supermarkets across the country have cleared the fruits off the shelves and farmers have dumped truckloads of their harvests.

The food scare may cost the country as much as A$160 million (S$159 million), Reuters reported.

Australia's parliament has also raised the prison term from 10 years to 15 years for a person convicted of tampering with food.

minlee@sph.com.sg