FDA Scaling Back Response to Lead-Tainted Applesauce, Continues Investigation

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday that it is reducing its U.S. response efforts to a lead contamination incident involving cinnamon applesauce pouches, which have been linked to numerous cases of sickness in children across the country. Despite this, the investigation into how the contamination occurred continues, particularly focusing on WanaBana’s apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches, which were recalled in late October due to elevated lead levels.

Following the recall, the FDA has successfully removed the contaminated products from retail stores and halted imports into the U.S. This included two additional products by WanaBana: Schnucks and Weis brand cinnamon applesauce pouches, which were also found to be contaminated and subsequently recalled.

Despite these efforts, there were concerns as some of the products continued to appear on store shelves months after the recall. Laurie Beyranevand, director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School, expressed the need for transparency regarding the distribution of the contaminated products, especially in lower-income communities where the affected stores are predominantly located.

The focus of the investigation is shifting from the FDA’s outbreak response team to its post-investigations unit, which will delve deeper into the origins of the lead contamination. Initial findings pointed to a cinnamon processor in Ecuador as the likely source of the contamination. It was revealed that although the cinnamon sticks sourced from Sri Lanka were uncontaminated initially, the lead contamination occurred during processing.

The contaminated cinnamon was supplied to Negasmart and subsequently to Austrofoods in Ecuador, where the applesauce pouches were manufactured before being exported to the U.S.

As the investigation proceeds, further insights are expected to be disclosed regarding how these safety breaches occurred and what measures will be implemented to prevent similar incidents in the future.