They seemed like any other snack pouches: cinnamon-flavored applesauce with cute cartoons, sold at grocery and dollar stores across America. But these innocent-looking pouches poisoned hundreds of children with toxic heavy metals, revealing gaping holes in the nation’s food safety net.
Last year, applesauce contaminated with extremely high levels of lead sickened at least 400 infants and toddlers in 44 states. Newly obtained records show how the tainted food slipped through multiple checkpoints in a broken food safety system meant to protect consumers.
The trail of poisoning stretches back to Sri Lanka, where cinnamon likely tainted with lead chromate, an illegal dye, was exported to Ecuador. There it was ground into powder and sold to Austrofood, which blended it into applesauce shipped to the U.S. and sold under brands like WanaBana.
Astoundingly, not once was the finished product tested for lead contamination – not by Austrofood, not by U.S. importers or auditors, and not by border inspectors.
The contaminated applesauce highlights how American food safety has been dangerously outsourced. With limited FDA oversight, rising imports, and reliance on corporate “self-regulation,” hazardous foods evade detection. This incident reveals reform is urgently needed to safeguard public health.
Red Flags Missed
Austrofood never tested its applesauce for lead before exporting it, simply relying on a third-party certificate claiming the cinnamon was lead-free. But the company that provided the certificate denies responsibility, saying it complied with all regulations.
U.S. importers commission private audits of overseas suppliers, but these only check for risks the importers identify themselves. It’s unclear if any even considered lead. Yet the applesauce sailed through, evading scrutiny.
FDA rules require testing food at the border, but less than 1% of imported products are examined. Inspectors hadn’t visited Austrofood’s plant in 5 years. Once in the U.S., the tainted applesauce was never screened for toxins.
A System Primed for Failure
Several factors enabled disaster:
- Plummeting FDA inspections of overseas food facilities, which are far below legal mandates.
- Limits on FDA’s authority to investigate international supply chains.
- An under-resourced regulatory agency in Ecuador, unable to adequately monitor toxins in exports.
- U.S. importers arguing against stringent safety requirements and testing that would destroy more product.
- Corporations given wide latitude to decide what hazards merit testing under lax FDA rules.
- Insufficient border screening of rising imports as food manufacturing shifts overseas.
Altogether, it’s a system primed for failure. Critics argue FDA has ceded too much control amid industry lobbying to weaken safety laws. Strict oversight takes a back seat to corporate profit motives.
Consequences for Children
The resulting human costs are severe. Lead poisoning during early childhood can doom a child’s future, damaging the brain, nervous system, and cognitive abilities.
The median blood lead level in impacted kids was 6 times higher than in Flint, Michigan’s notorious water contamination crisis. Studies suggest even low exposure causes permanent harm including hyperactivity, developmental delays, and lower IQs.
Thomas Duong and Nicole Peterson’s two young children in North Carolina were among those poisoned. Lead levels in the 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy had doubled to up to 7 times CDC health thresholds.
Ultimately public health investigation revealed the source as lead-tainted applesauce. “We’re not sleeping and we’re not eating – like this is driving us crazy,” described an anguished Peterson as the couple tried to protect their kids.
Their nightmare illuminates the need for radical food safety reform. The profit-driven self-regulation model is failing American families. It’s time to put children’s health over corporate bottom lines.
Ref: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/world/europe/lead-applesauce-food-safety.html?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20240227&instance_id=116209&nl=morning-briefing%3A-asia-pacific-edition®i_id=175885242&segment_id=159298&te=1&user_id=3f89916960776e55a6510af6565dc672
