The supermarket giant apologised for the blunder at the store in West Green, Crawley, West Sussex, and blamed a fault in their system.
When Ms Zuke, a reporter on trade magazine The Grocer, asked why the purchase had to be verified, she was told that the six-pack of spoons 'could be used as drug paraphernalia.' Heroin - which comes in powder form - is put in the spoon with water and citric acid and heated with a lighter to rid it of any impurities.
'Drugs paraphernalia': A shop assistant at this Sainsbury's store in West Green, Crawley, West Sussex, said ID was needed because spoons could be useful for taking drugs
Ms Zuke said yesterday: 'I could not understand what the problem was -- when the supervisor said it was because they could be used as drug paraphernalia I was completely shocked. I would imagine the vast majority of spoons sold by Sainsbury's are used for nothing more nefarious than stirring a cup of tea. Having to prove I was over 18 to buy them seemed total madness.'
Sainsbury's blamed the mistake on a problem with its stock-keeping units which provide a unique identifier for each product on the shelves. A problem with the system meant that it asked for identification automatically.
Cooking up: Heroin addicts use teaspoons to heat up heroin over a candle in order to purify it
A spokeswoman said: 'The self-scan system recognised the spoon's SKU as one for a knife. This had now been rectified. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. Our Think 25 policy is designed to ensure age-related products are sold safely.'
In October 2009, Emma Sheppard, 21, was asked for identification when buying spoons in a Tesco store in Evesham, Worcestershire. She was forced to leave the store without the 57p pack of five spoons because she did not have a passport or driving licence with her. Tesco later apologised for the mistake.
Source: Daily Mail UK.
