Tainted cinnamon applesauce pouches that have sickened scores of children in the U.S. may have been purposefully contaminated with lead, according to FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones.

“We’re still in the midst of our investigation. But so far all of the signals we’re getting lead to an intentional act on the part of someone in the supply chain and we’re trying to sort of figure that out,” Jones said in an exclusive interview. The pouches found to be contaminated were sold under three brands — Weis, WanaBana and Schnucks — that are all linked to a manufacturing facility in Ecuador. The FDA says it’s conducting an inspection of that facility.

“My instinct is they didn’t think this product was going to end up in a country with a robust regulatory process,” Jones said. “They thought it was going to end up in places that did not have the ability to detect something like this.”

    • gregorum
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      11 months ago

      And that doesn’t even tackle the problem of getting it pasteurized to rid it of microorganisms or trying to keep it shelfstable for more than a few days of transport, let alone getting it on the shelf long enough to be sold. 

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Sorry, I’ll provide more detailed instructions.

      • cut the apple in two. Remove the seeds and stem
      • add spices and maybe sugar
      • gently place it into a blender, with filtered water as needed
      • turn it on
      • pour it into something

      I guess if we’re dealing with people who don’t understand the basics of food, they might want to buy leaded applesauce from Ecuador since their kids are probably doomed anyway.