[Sign up for the Australia Letter to get news, conversation starters and local recommendations in your inbox each week.]

MELBOURNE, Australia — “This will ruin Australia,” declared a television news anchor.

It “Threatens to Tear Nation Apart,” read a headline on a popular news site.

The furor spilled onto social media too on Wednesday, as citizens decried an “outrageous” recommendation that would upend decades of tradition, and which at its core was declared “BEYOND ridiculous.”

The existential threat? A hardware store’s suggestion that people put onions under a sausage instead of on top.