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.”
This is where those US based companies should get absolutely reamed. Want to profit off cheap labor and raw materials from developing countries with “lax” controls? Then you should face all consequences and lost profits. No “blaming” some other supplier.
China executed mfers when companies sold tainted baby milk powder.
I’m not a huge fan of China, but I’ll admit they’re doing at least one thing right.
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.
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.
I thought the lead was in the cinnamon used?
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.
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.
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
Leaded fuel is forbidden for ground vehicles. It is still legal in airplane fuel.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/20/aviation-lead-fuel-00081641
We have a lot more work to do.
Oh, well, that’s just another nice thing to learn about how everyone is fucked. I even think I read about that but forgot maybe because I wanted to beleave lead to be gone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point”
How about jailing responsible execs? Money wrist slaps notoriously don’t do shit
Keep increasing the penalty until it actually has an effect.
Even if it never changes their behavior, all the free money can be used for other things until they go out of business.
There should be a tiered system, too. First offenders just have to pay a certain amount to cover all expenses and then some. Subsequent offenders should have to pay more, probably double at the minimum.
Just like how insurers increase rates when we use their services, taxpayers should increase rates for businesses that use their services.
Miniscule fine incoming…
Price of business
we’re trying to sort of figure that out
Well that inspires confidence.
I think it’s just a literal quote of how he spoke, and not an attempt at waffling around an answer. The guy seems to have a goal in mind in the article.
What the fuck
“My instinct is they didn’t think this product was going to end up in a country with a robust regulatory process,”
Is this guy serious? It wasn’t detected before kids got sick, they still don’t know what happened and he’s talking about ‘robust regulatory process’? Here in EU I always check where products come from (not to buy something from Catalonia by accident) and all the food is made in EU. It’s because there are strict regulations on food safety, workplace safety, monitoring and so on. Countries that do now meet those requirements have tariffs put on their food and there’s extra requirements and check on imports (ask the UK). That’s why I keep hearing about cases here where they recall some food before anyone gets sick. But yeah, bringing food from Ecuador, waiting for kids to get sick and then trying to figure out what happened is ‘robust regulatory process’. Amazing.
Why do you avoid buying from catalonia?
Because they are stealing money from the rest of Spain and work to worsen the lives of people in other regions for their own benefit. I’m not gong to support that by giving them money.
As far as I know, it is the other way around. Catalonia wants to separate from Spain because they are the economic powerhouse region of Spain, in addition to cultural and ethnological reasons.
There are reasons to boycott some Spanish production, significant water problems in certain regions due to unfavorable water contracts for the population, labor issues, etc., but definitely not like this. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20345071
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/10/14/catalonias-independence-movement
Well, you know wrong and your ‘arguments’ don’t make any sense. Every country has a region that’s an ‘economic powerhouse’. Do you believe each of those regions should become independent? You know why Catalonia is an economic powerhouse? Same reason as regions in other countries:
- geography: this region is simply conveniently located to build industry there, has proper resources and good climate
- politics: Spanish government purposefully moved a lot of industry from other regions to Catalonia. They didn’t simply build it, it was uprooted from other regions and moved there
- migration: a lot of hardworking people migrated there after industry was moved and worked to build strong companies there
- strong internal market: Catalonia is selling it’s products to Spain. Without a strong market in the rest of Spain they would not be able build their economy. Until Spain joined EU they would face tariffs and would have difficulties exporting.
- investment: central government invested a lot of money to build roads, railways, port and airports in Catalonia.
Obviously there are other regions that could be an ‘economic powerhouses’ of Spain. Without Catalonia Spain would simply invest in other regions and consolidated industry there. The idea that Catalonia grew in a vacuum and built it’s economy independently from Spain to later be invaded and exploited is simply a lie. It’s a integral region of Spain that have seen a lot of investment. Investment made by Spain with the cost of big national debt that Catalonia want’s to avoid paying now. That’s what it comes down to: Catalonia want’s to take the money and run away.
Now to you ‘cultural and ethnological’ reasons. Historically (until 1990’) only bout 20% of Catalans considered themselves different country and wanted independence. That’s because till 1990’ the independence movement was based on cultural and ethnological values. It didn’t really worked, 80% of Catalans still felt they are Spanish. In 1990 Catalan leaders started talking about money. Their arguments shifted to “we are the economic powerhouse, we should keep all our money” (sounds familiar?). Suddenly support for independence grew to around 50%. It’s not because their culture changed, it’s because people there understood that disrupting Spanish politics and fighting for independence will give them money. That’s what it’s all about. This rhetoric also ignores the fact that 50% of Catalans still consider themselves Spanish citizens and want to live in Spain. They are being actively discriminated by Catalan government and in case Catalonia becomes independent will entirely lose protection given them by Spain. Supporting Catalan independence gives Catalan green light to discriminated half of their population. Keep that in mind next time you will promote Catalan propaganda.
Sounds like they don’t want to pay taxes to support workers that made them rich.
If I had to guess, Catalonia is where the white collar jobs are and they want to distance themselves from where blue collar jobs are.
Ironic considering Catalonia was the hub of an Anarchist Worker-coop revolution during the Spanish civil war.
One could note a direct link between Franco driving the boot into their neck for fifty years while the rest of the country clapped and modern Spanish fascists starting to win elections with their current desire to leave.
Yeah. Each generation wants to be on top while everyone else is subjugated.
Are you even reading?
The most prosperous region of Spain, which is actively trying to get independence, is stealing money from the rest of the country?
It seems to me, that “cutting” off Catalonia’s supposed theft, would be as easy as letting them leave.
Shhh it’s Spaniard logic also known by us Portuguese as: pure stupidity.
Why do you think the inquisition did so well in Spain. They aren’t very intelligent
What a stupid comment.
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Uh. The Portuguese Inquisition was just as brutal and effective though.
They can leave it they are willing to pay for the national infrastructure build there and take their fair share of national dept. Now take this offer to Catalans and see what they will say.
Are there a lot of products that come from Catalonia?
There is a high concentration of Spanish industry in the region, and a major cargo port in Barcelona. Madrid and Barcelona are, by far, the moat important cities in the country.
Some. They have big chemical industry so a lot of cleaning products and cosmetics come from there. But it’s always easy to find substitutes. Also because of their criminal behavior a lot of companies moved to other regions so it’s even easier to avoid them now.
Why does child food need to be produced thousands of miles away?
Cheap labor, mostly.
Ah, right. How much are the CEOs making as compared to their lowest paid workers?
I know you’re not trying to justify it. Just some horse balls is all.
Just some horse balls is all.
Those went into the peach cobbler.
Where can I buy this horse ball cobbler?
Peaches horse farm, in Georgia, probably.
Even if they moved production back to the US, they would just raise prices so we’re paying more.
Seriously. Take an apple, throw it in a blender. That was easy.
Great, now you’ve added arsenic but forgot the cinnamon. Not so easy after all, was it?!
That is indeed the core problem.
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. 
Who’s trying to do that? I’m talking about feeding your kid an apple.
I was talking about applesauce
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.
Lead is in the spices. The spices come from many different sources.
I’ve read that too. Spices aren’t contaminated to the extent of the sauces that were recalled though. I guess if you’re concerned, you can eat macrobiotic and/or test your soil and grow everything yourself. Of course not everyone can do that though and most climates won’t work for all spices or herbs.
My kid is gonna love his dill apple smoothie
I was thinking oregano and cayenne!
Come on. What kid is going to have dill in a smoothie?
Paprika. That’s what you put in a kids’ smoothie.
That’ll give you a crappy excuse for applesauce. Got to peel, core, and slice the apples then cook it in the spices and cider until soft, then mash, sweeten, and reduce.
maybe if you want to preserve it but otherwise probably healthier to eat it raw. I’m fine with just puréed fruit.
Thank you for that comment, made me genuinely laugh aloud.
I read the article. Is this because lead has a sweet, appealing flavor? I remember reading this was a huge problem at certain times and places.
That would be similar to that fucked up thing that happened in China where some corrupt companies were putting a plastic resin in milk to cheat protein level tests.
It happens in all the poorer Asian countries with turmeric too, https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/11/02/bangladesh-strikes-a-blow-against-lead-poisoning – classic capitalism, if they can make a couple of dollars more they won’t even lose a night’s sleep over poisoning millions of people.
We really do need to fund food safety organisations well, these regulations and authorities the right wing keep trying to get rid of are incredibly important to our safety and wellbeing.
Absolutely. The US Conservative jerk-off about ‘regulation harming the economy’ is one of their most ridiculous and disingenuous/ignorant positions. It’s easy to see what happens with lack of regulation - people all the way from seniors to infants get poisoned by lazy and greedy business owners.
Ancient Romans used it to sweeten wine. Also why kids used to be fond of eating lead paint chips. Slightly sweet.
So this was driving me nuts, so I had to look it up. I thought I dreamed it.
Apparently, this continued for centuries, and may have contributed to Beethoven’s illness and death.
I think I actually read about it in a thread here on Lemmy.
Yeah, this wasn’t someone with a grudge against children poisoning their food, this was an willfully negligent decision made by the producers to make the product more profitable
We used to put fucking formaldehyde in milk for infants
It keeps the babies fresh.
Helps stiffen up them joints. Gives ‘em a lil structure.
Lead(II,IV) Oxide (aka red lead) is sometimes used to color low-quality cinnamon to look better. Much like yellow led is sometimes used to color turmeric. Toxic, of course, but profitable!
Is there a way that someone can test for this at home? It seems troubling that children had to be poisoned before any action was taken.
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Relatively speaking it does.
Is it akin to “third world countries start investing a food only after a thousand children poisonings, but we’re starting after several hundreds already”?
Relatively to other countries, the US has a robust regulatory process.
When you read these stories just remember the leaders who profit off these products are shielded from their cost saving decisions. Late stage capitalism y’all.
All these say no sugar added. Lead tastes sweet. So I guess that counts as an alternative sweetener?
hol up. gonna try this out
TBF the Romans used to use lead as a sweetener all the time. While it can’t have done them much good it can’t have been immediately fatal or they’d have stopped. If it was intended as a sweetener in this case someone must have seriously fucked up the dosage. And I’d have thought they’d go for cheaper and easier ways to make the product taste sweeter, like aspartame or saccharine.
or lie and just fucking put sugar in it.
That’s what I would expect
Oh make no mistake about it, I fully expect them to sweeten children’s applesauce with lead instead of sugar so it can be marketed as “no sugar added.” That’s what businesses do. If they can make a buck by poisoning children, they will make the decision to poison children. Every single time.
I am sick and tired of sharing a genome with these creatures.
Username checks out
(Sorry, I know this is a serious issue, but my brain is fried and I couldn’t resist. To be clear, I fully agree with everything you’ve said here.)
Yeah, that was intentional.
Well, if anybody is an expert on poisoned kid’s drinks it’s Jim Jones.
Right? I was gonna look it up to make sure that name is the one I was thinking of.
For others maybe not familiar, if you have ever heard the phrase “they drank the kool-aid” a cult leader also named Jim Jones ran a cult informally called JonesTown. If you have a strong stomach and a curiosity about how cult “life” can be, there is a pretty detailed Wikipedia article on it. Spoiler alert, the ending of the story is one of the worst parts. And also how we can be certain this is a different Jim Jones.
And also it was “flavor-aid”, but details don’t always make it into the memes.
Jim Jones is such a fascinating character because of how much good he did. He fought for social justice, championed racial equality and tried to help the poor. He was beloved by his community and civic leaders. But…behind the curtain he was an abusive megalomaniac that led hundreds of people to their death.
But…behind the curtain he was an abusive megalomaniac that led hundreds of people to their death.
This is true far too often about people who are public goods (not the leading hundreds to their death part obviously).
I am amazed what he got arrested for, how it didn’t work out, but mostly what he wasn’t arrested for. The Wikipedia article states that problems were mounting for at least a couple of years, and he was paranoid about being arrested (not without ground, surely) but why nothing was done until he relocated and ordered a massacre is beyond me
“Robust regulatory processes” my fucking ass dude. Food recalls happen ALL THE TIME in the US (AFTER all the kids get sick and die, mind you) and this fucking clown wants to talk about how great our FDA is? What a joke! And youll think well, maybe its just the cheaper brands and you would be wrong. Name brands and off brands all get contaminated I swear I see it at least once a month. Just google food recalls in the past year. Not only that, a lot of the literal poison they put in our food is illegal everywhere else. UK just seized thousands of pounds of candy from us because of “illegal ingredients” What fucking deception to say that our FDA is even remotely competent. If I didnt live here, I would NEVER eat the food from here
Isn’t the high amount of recalls the evidence of the processes working?
This feels like saying “our border is insecure! Look at all the drugs we confiscated!”
A “robust regulatory process” wouldnt have 10 million plus jars of peanut butter with E Coli contamination make it to the store shelves and take months to figure out about, AFTER some people die. That happened like 1 to 2 years ago. Now a bunch of kids get lead poisoning from Applesauce pouches so we take them off the shelves and act like we have some amazing system. How about those cancer causing dyes that california is banning andNOW the FDA is talking about, PERHAPS banning them nationwide. Our FDA is trash.
as much as having overwhelmed hospitals is an indication of a thriving healthcare system… it would be better to have less recalls and better regulation of products to market, and similarly better to have affordable preventative healthcare to keep people out of hospitals in the first place.
Wow. Eat organic and local I guess?
Lead is organic.
Organic = contains carbon. Lead, as a base metal, does not contain carbon. So lead is definitively not organic.
The problem is, all that food that isn’t labeled as organic? It is organic. Which is why that label is really fucking stupid.
That’s organic chemistry which is very different from the definition of organic food.
As far as I can tell they used the word ‘organic’ when it came to agriculture because it sounded cool.
I mean we’d been using organic and synthetic in that context for decades so it was a fairly obvious choice really. I think a lot of math focused people don’t really understand the complexity of the English language, or any language really, there isn’t a singular definition, defined space, or underlying principal for words they get their meaning from usage and context.
Aliens won’t have derived the same words as us but they will have determined the same relationships between 0, 1, 2, etc - organic food is just a word for a grouping that people needed a shorthand to refer to.
I can’t believe any parent would walk right past the organic/local section at the dollar store and pick up lead pouches instead, but here we are.
Or avoid processed foods and just eat plain apples. If you can. Sometimes they’re hard as rocks.
Geez where are you getting your apples?
Black Market Minerals, they’re branching out into fresh produce in my neighborhood. I think.
Just another reason to avoid anything processed. I turned away from processed foods a decade or so ago and my health has never been better. Yes…all those additives are generally recognized as safe, but when you dig into it, no…no they are not especially on your gut health. That is aside from contamination risks like this situation. Why put your health in the hands of a corporation when you can eat whole foods that are much harder to tamper with.
I just tell my toddler if he wants applesauce he’ll have to make it from scratch. I’d make it for him but who has the time these days, you know? Anyway, once I’ve turned on the blender and stove for him he’s good to go. Nothing but whole foods for my little one.
There is a point where some fruits are more dangerous than others to give a toddler, such as grapes.
But you can bulk make a lot of purees with a hand mixer. On the weekend I would batch cook and bulk freeze a lot of different purees before they could have solid food. There’s these silicone trays a little larger than ice trays you can use to freeze the purees, then put them on a ziplock bag and pull one or two out to defrost in the microwave real quick.
You don’t have to use everything fresh, you can use frozen fruits/veggies and even do Passata - Strained Tomatoes no salt added, with spaghetti, or Mac n cheese. We had concerns about the level of salt in premade foods so we made our own on the weekend and froze it all. Low sodium lentil soups are ok too.
It ended up being a lot cheaper just to spend an hour on the weekend batch cooking for the kid and batch cooking for lunches to take to work too.
Finally I got a little plastic masher and used that, as soon as they were old enough do it themselves. They wouldn’t eat anything they mashed at first but they loved playing with it.
Now they just grab apples and other fruit straight from the fridge.
Our doctor said not to give them juice or fruit packs at all. The doctor did say chocolate milk mixed with regular milk is a good treat that’s safe and hydrating tho.
It’s honestly saved me time and money just to put in an hours work on the weekends instead of buying premade.
