The tainting of supermarket strawberries with sewing needles is comparable to “terrorism”, Australia’s Prime Minister said on Wednesday, as he demanded tougher sentencing in response to a nationwide scare.

Urging Australians to make a strawberry pavlova this weekend to help struggling farmers, Scott Morrison demanded a change in the law to put the perpetrators behind bars for 15 years. “We’re not mucking about,” said Morrison, after at least 20 pieces of fruit were found to be contaminated with needles or pins. “This is not on, this is just not on in this country,” he said.

The scare has prompted a slew of supermarket recalls, and some stores in New Zealand have temporarily banned the sale of Australian strawberries.