Posted: July 27th, 2011 - 9:39pm by Doug Powell

A Brazilian woman who ate a dish of savory meatballs with tomato sauce only to discover a condom in the tomato can, will be awarded $US5000 ($A4552) in damages, the Globo news website reports.

The southern state of Rio Grande do Sul fined the tomato saucemaker the amount for "moral damages."

The woman was using tomato paste to season meatballs and it was only after finishing the meal that she noticed mold in the bottom of the can, with the condom wrapped around what remained of the paste.

Describing the "grotesque scene," Judge Joao Gilberto Marroni Vitola said in his ruling that the experience had "profoundly disgusted the family".

The tomato sauce company claimed that its entire production and packaging process was automated.