A YOUNG boy has been arrested after he admitted to inserting needles into strawberries, as the government rushes to enforce tough laws that would impose massive penalties for anyone caught meddling with fruit.

NSW Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith announced the arrest this afternoon, amid an outbreak of cases across Australia.

“In the last two days we found a young person has admitted to a prank, including putting needles in strawberries, and he’ll be dealt with under the youth cautioning system,” he told media.

It comes as an extra three cases have been reported, including one in Newcastle involving a needle in a banana which was packed in a child’s lunchbox, and two more strawberry contamination reports in Tasmania, one of them involving a two-year-old girl.

The new laws, which would mean hefty jail sentences, look set to sail through Parliament tomorrow with Labor’s support. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said that while Labor is yet to be fully briefed on the government’s plans, “I can assure Australians that we will work with the government in supporting farmers, and deterring and stopping these despicable acts.”

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton earlier called on Australians to remove social media posts containing fake images of contaminated fruit, over fears they are sparking copycat offenders.

More than 25 cases of strawberries contaminated with sewing needles are being investigated across the country, but Mr Dutton said more than 100 cases of dangerous fruit had been reported.

“We believe a lot of these will be hoaxes or copycat events,” Mr Dutton told reporters.

“I would encouraged anyone to pull any of that content down that they have posted up that is fictional or is of a fabricated arrangement.”

Mr Dutton said while the sinister acts placed a strain on police resources, all reports had to be taken seriously.

“If somebody has the intent, if they are deranged enough to put needles or some foreign object into strawberries, they can do it with other fruits as well,” he said.

People who tamper with food with slammed as “deluded” by AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin, who warned offenders were “potentially committing serious criminal offences”.

The warning comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison looks to punish ‘cowards’ who purposely contaminate food.

Culprits could face up to 15 years jail under tough updates to food contamination laws the PM will urgently push through parliament this week.

And “idiots” who post Facebook hoaxes about fake contamination cases could face up to 10 years in jail under new measures to deal with “reckless” behaviour.

‘Sabotage’ laws will also be updated to include the sabotage of “goods for human consumption” where it impacts national security.

It comes as the strawberry contamination scare continues to worsen, with more than 25 cases being investigated across the country including suspected copy cat cases.

In a joint press conference at Parliament today, the Prime Minister and Attorney-General announced they would urgently seek to beef up penalties.

Anyone threatening to contaminate food, with a hoax video for example, would also face the higher maximum penalty.

The government will also seek to lower the threshold for convicting offenders, from having to prove intent to simply proving ‘reckless behaviour’, so copycat perpetrators can be prosecuted.

Prime Minister Morrison requested that the laws be reviewed last night as the strawberry contamination scare worsened.

Mr Porter said the level of criminality occuring at the moment was “unprecedented in Australia”.

“Any idiot who thinks they can go out into a shopping centre and start sticking pins in fruit and thinks this is some sort of lark or put something on Facebook which is a hoax, that sort of behaviour is reckless and under the provision we will be seeking to introduce swiftly, that type of behaviour would carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison,” Prime Minister Morrison said today.

“It’s not a joke. It’s not funny. You are putting the livelihoods of hard-working Australians at risk and you are scaring children,” he said.

“You are a coward and a grub. And if you do that sort of thing in this country we will come after you and we will throw the book at you.”

Attorney-General Christian Porter will introduce the new measures to Parliament tomorrow morning.

Mr Morrison said he would be seeking support from Labor and crossbenchers to pass the laws before Parliament rises tomorrow afternoon for a two-week break.

This morning, former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce called for a substantial reward to hunt down those behind the strawberry needle contamination crisis.

The high profile Nationals MP says the criminals responsible must be “pursued and hunted down”, arguing anyone withholding information is also committing a crime by not reporting it.

“The reward... has to be substantially increased to hunt this person down,” Mr Joyce told the Nine Network on Wednesday.

“It is not only a threat to the strawberry industry, it is a threat across the food production industry. We have got to treat it as such.”

Deputy Nationals Leader Bridget McKenzie also urged police in each jurisdiction affected to catch the strawberry saboteurs.

“I just think it’s absolutely disgusting that somebody in our community thinks this is a good idea to actually put needles in our fabulously clean and green produce,” Ms McKenzie told reporters.

“It will be stopping mums and dads from purchasing strawberries.” Mr Joyce pleaded for supermarket chains to continue to stock strawberries as an act of defiance.

“We can show our support for the industries by buying strawberries,” he said. “If we just take them off the shelves, we are saying to this person, ‘you succeeded - your criminal act succeeded’.”

Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt made a point of eating a strawberry at a public event this morning to show support for Australian farmers as the contamination scare worsens.

“This is a very simple message that all of us can do. Support our farmers, support your health - eat a chopped Australian strawberry,” he told the crowd.

The federal government is putting $1 million towards helping fast track recalls and increase detection of sabotage.

The new laws look set to sail through Parliament tomorrow with Labor’s support.

“Labor will work with the government on supporting farmers and stopping these despicable acts,” Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said.

“We haven’t been briefed on today’s announcement but on the face of it, it looks reasonable and we are glad the Government has listened to Labor’s calls for more support.

“We’ll look at the detail when we have the legislation.”