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.”

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Lead is sweet. That’s why kids eat paint chips.

      Someone saved money on sugar and biocide.

      The reason why I tacked this on after your comment is that you are on to something.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Sugar is way too cheap to use lead these days. 100 years ago this would have been plausible to me, but not today.

        Lead is used as a plastic softener, and these packages were likely not rated for food usage and whoever bought them online hadn’t checked for FDA approval for food safety before purchasing. It could have been something as simple as someone accidentally using the wrong materials in the factory too.

          • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Oh yeah, I do remember hearing that. Still might be the packaging for whatever they ship the cinnamon in, but I do know that plants can also take up heavy metals in the soil, so multiple possible avenues for contamination. I’m sure the fda will figure it out.

            • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You remember hearing that? Do you remember where? Was it maybe the article from this post? No, that couldn’t be it, because you clearly didn’t read it.

              • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                A previous article posted, actually. This article was careful to mention they haven’t decided on the source of contamination.

                I have long covid memory problems, thanks for reminding me I’m still sick, I really didn’t need that but here you are being helpful!

        • lad@programming.dev
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          11 months ago

          Makes me wonder how much lead will flow into humans now that lead fuel is forbidden everywhere but lead food packaging is on the rise