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.”

  • acceptable_pumpkin@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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.

    • saze@feddit.uk
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      11 months ago

      China executed mfers when companies sold tainted baby milk powder.

        • 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.

    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      How about jailing responsible execs? Money wrist slaps notoriously don’t do shit

      • chitak166@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

    • drislands@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

  • ExLisper@linux.community
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    11 months ago

    “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.

      • ExLisper@linux.community
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • test113@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          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.thelocal.es/20230818/why-are-the-basque-country-and-catalonia-so-rich-compared-to-the-rest-of-spain

          https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/10/14/catalonias-independence-movement

          • ExLisper@linux.community
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            11 months ago

            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.

          • chitak166@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            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.

            • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net
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              11 months ago

              Ironic considering Catalonia was the hub of an Anarchist Worker-coop revolution during the Spanish civil war.

              • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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                11 months ago

                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.

        • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          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.

          • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            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

          • ExLisper@linux.community
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            11 months ago

            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.

          • qdJzXuisAndVQb2@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            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.

          • ExLisper@linux.community
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            11 months ago

            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.

  • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
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    11 months ago

    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.

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    11 months ago

    After watching the segment about food safety on Last Week Tonight, I wouldn’t call what the US has as “a robust regulatory process”

      • lad@programming.dev
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        11 months ago

        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”?

  • gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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.

  • _lilith@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    All these say no sugar added. Lead tastes sweet. So I guess that counts as an alternative sweetener?

    • butterflyattack@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • sangriaferret@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • lad@programming.dev
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          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

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          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).

  • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    “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

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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!”

  • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    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.

    • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • Vqhm@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

    • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 months ago

      Or avoid processed foods and just eat plain apples. If you can. Sometimes they’re hard as rocks.