Lead-contaminated applesauce pouches expose issues with food safety oversight

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• John Yang:

  The effects of last fall`s recall of applesauce pouches with high concentrations of leaded are widening. As Ali Rogin reports it`s raising questions about how food reaches supermarket shelves, who watches over it and how far that oversight extends.

• Ali Rogin:

  The contaminated pouches were first discovered back in October, but only because health officials in North Carolina were doing routine blood lead levels screenings. Hundreds of cases are now under investigation.

  The FDA has confirmed that highly contaminated cinnamon was the culprit. The applesauce pouches were produced in Ecuador and sold in U.S. supermarkets, on Amazon and in stores like Dollar Tree.

  Helena Bottemiller Evich is the founder and editor of Food Fix, a publication that focuses on food policy. She`s been tracking this unfolding recall. Helena, thank you so much for being here.

  How has the impact of these recalled pouches expanded since this news first broke? And what do we expect about the scope? Do we do we think it`s going to continue to increase?

• Helena Bottemiller Evich, Food Fix Newsletter:

  Yeah, so about three months ago, we knew of four kids in North Carolina who had elevated blood lead levels. And since then, we have now gone to over 350 cases under investigation by federal health officials in 41 states.

  So this has expanded quite substantially. I think 350 is likely an undercount, just considering how hard it is for people to hear about this and also get their kids tested from their pediatrician.

  So I think it`s an undercount. I don`t know how many more kids will end up under investigation, but it`s certainly a tragedy that should never have happened.

• Ali Rogin:

  Absolutely. What are we talking about in terms of symptoms? And how serious is this for children who are of course the vast majority of the people eating these pouches?

• Helena Bottemiller Evich:

  Yeah, so I think it`s important to note that lead is a neurotoxin and it`s — there`s a pretty strong scientific consensus that there`s no safe level of lead particularly for young children and infants it can cause lowered IQ, develop mental problems, behavioral problems. So this is a really serious issue.

  In this case, the lead levels were very high, the cinnamon was actually found to have 2,000 times higher levels than what would be considered safe under international standards. That said, children probably wouldn`t be exhibiting symptoms.

  So the key message here is that if you or your child consumed these recalled pouches, which you can check at fda.gov, you should get your blood tested regardless of whether you have symptoms.

• Ali Rogin:

  It`s really good advice there. The applesauce contamination is an example of some of the vulnerabilities that exist within the global supply chain. How much control does the FDA have over? We`re talking about worldwide supply chains? What does that look like?

• Helena Bottemiller Evich:

  Yeah, in this case, we`re learning about some of the holes and limitations of FDA`s jurisdiction. So in this situation, in particular, it was a company in Ecuador that made the pouches and FDA was able to get access to that plant and test the cinnamon, they found extremely high levels of lead, like off the charts, I mentioned 2,000 times higher than international safety standards. So really high levels.

  They also found chromium, which is another metal that we don`t know a lot about, but it potentially suggest lead chromate was the culprit here. So probably points to economic adulteration, lead chromate can be used to make spices appear brighter. It also contains lead. So it is very much something we want to keep out of the spice supply.

  In this situation, FDA was not able to go further up the supply chain to the cinnamon supplier, because that cinnamon supplier is not sending food directly to the US. So we`re finding some limitations just in terms of what FDA is able to do. Ecuador is continuing to investigate, though I`ve had a lot of trouble getting updates from Ecuador about how that investigation is going.

• Ali Rogin:

  And is that really where this falls through the cracks if the manufacturers if the suppliers are not traveling specifically through the United States? Is the oversight there that the FDA has is that where it gets really limited?

• Helena Bottemiller Evich:

  So that`s where they have jurisdiction, if you`re shipping food to the U.S., FDA has jurisdiction over that. In this case, going further up the supply chain is the issue. And the reason that`s an issue is that cinnamon is primarily coming from China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia or Vietnam.

  So didn`t come from Ecuador, probably. And so we need to find where the cinnamon originally came from, and where it got contaminated. Because if it was economic adulteration, they want to know where that happened, and where else the cinnamon may have gone.

  The good news is FDA has been doing a lot more screening of cinnamon coming into the US. And they have so far not found high levels of lead. So that is the good news. But there are limitations here. And even what FDA is able to screen they do not have enough inspectors to really be in foreign food plants very often.

• Ali Rogin:

  And to that point, though, the FDA is not routinely screening for heavy metals, right?

• Helena Bottemiller Evich:

  So when it comes to spices, we actually don`t have limits for heavy metals and spices. We also don`t have heavy metals limits for most baby foods. And FDA is under pressure to set limits for baby foods in particular because we know this is such a vulnerable population.

  The agency has been very slow to do so they are working on that now. And I think this situation puts a lot of additional pressure on the agency to move forward on that because parents shouldn`t have to think about this.

  This is something you expect the food industry regulators to take care of. This is not something parents should be thinking about.

• Ali Rogin:

  Absolutely. Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder and editor of Food Fix. Thank you so much for breaking this all down for us.

• Helena Bottemiller Evich:

  Happy to be here.