U.S. food inspectors found “extremely high” lead levels in cinnamon at a plant in Ecuador that made applesauce pouches tainted with the metal.

U.S. food inspectors found “extremely high” levels of lead in cinnamon at a plant in Ecuador that made applesauce pouches tainted with the metal, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday. The recalled pouches have been linked to dozens of illnesses in U.S. kids.

Cinnamon tested from the plant had lead levels more than 2,000 times higher than a maximum level proposed by the FDA, officials said.

The samples came from ground or powdered cinnamon from Negasmart, an Ecuadorian company that supplied the spice to Austrofoods, which made the pouches. The applesauce pouches were sold under three brands — WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis. Officials with Austrofoods did not respond to requests for comment about the investigation.

  • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    I just discovered those apple cinnamon fruit pouches because the snacks in the office pantry had them. They aren’t the brands listed in the article though, but I’ll probably avoid them for now.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        8·
        11 months ago

        Or know your sources. I get all my spices from Penzey’s, I absolutely trust them.

        https://www.penzeys.com/

        https://www.penzeys.com/shop/about-republicans/

        “Going forward we would still be glad to have you as customers, but we’re done pretending the Republican Party’s embrace of cruelty, racism, Covid lies, climate change denial, and threats to democracy are anything other than the risks they legitimately are. If you need us to pretend you are not creating the hurt you are creating in order for you to continue to be our customer, I’m sad to say you might be happier elsewhere.”

      • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
        7·
        11 months ago

        Probably depends if you can find out where the cinnamon you use comes from. I have the same issue with turmeric when the news came out that there was a high amount of lead in the ones that are produced in India. The problem is 90% (I think) of the turmeric in the world comes from there, and the korean curry powder I buy doesn’t say where the turmeric is sourced from.

      • cybersandwich@lemmy.world
        4·
        11 months ago

        I am. These things have a tendency to grow, not shrink in scope. So we aren’t doing anything with cinnamon for now. Thankfully we never used those brands and we didn’t really have anything with cinnamon to begin with.

        But it wouldn’t hurt to avoid it for now. There are so many options to choose from its such a low effort mitigation.