In November 2023, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) along with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were investigating links between “Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree pouches” and reports of elevated blood lead levels.
The products were manufactured in Ecuador and were sold under the brands: WanaBana, Weis, Schnucks.
It was clear that the likely culprit was cinnamon.
We’re still keen to see what other countries are doing about this – including Australia and New Zealand.
My advice is –
If you’ve got any store-bought pureed cinnamon apple products OR cinnamon porridge food pouches containing cinnamon from Sri Lanka, keep them safely out of reach of children until your state or territory food safety agency has tested and declared them safe in Australia.
If you’ve regularly fed your children these cinnamon-containing baby food pouches, go to your GP and ask for a blood lead series and organise for the blood to be collected at a public hospital pathology clinic.
The US FDA says that most children have no obvious immediate symptoms, so don’t wait, get your child blood lead tested if they’ve eaten any cinnamon-containing baby foods.
Read more here https://leadsafeworld.com/LAN-applesauce and read on for updates.
February 6, 2024
Ecuadorian officials in Agencia Nacional de Regulación, Control y Vigilancia Sanitaria (ARCSA) have reported that Carols Aguilera of Ecuador, the processor of the ground cinnamon supplied by Negasmart to Austrofoods and later used in the recalled apple cinnamon products, is the likely source of contamination and is not in operation at this time. Additionally, according to ARCSA, the unprocessed cinnamon sticks used in related products were sourced from Sri Lanka and were sampled by ARCSA and found to have no lead contamination. ARCSA’s investigation and legal proceedings to determine the ultimate responsibility for the contamination are still ongoing.
February 13, 2024
CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health is conducting case finding efforts in collaboration with state and local health departments. CDC’s case definition for state partners includes a blood lead level of 3.5 µg/dL or higher measured within 3 months after consuming a recalled WanaBana, Schnucks, or Weis brand fruit puree product after November 2022. As of February 9, CDC has received reports from 101 confirmed cases, 284 probable cases, and 37 suspected cases for a total of 422 cases from 44 different states through their reporting structure. For more information, please visit CDC’s page to review their case reporting methodology and findings.
March 13, 2024
To date, FDA has reviewed 90 confirmed complaints/reports of adverse events potentially linked to recalled product. Confirmed complainants, or people for whom a complaint or adverse event was submitted and met FDA’s complainant definition, are between zero and 53 years of age and the median age is one year old.
CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health is conducting case finding efforts in collaboration with state and local health departments. CDC’s case definition for state partners includes a blood lead level of 3.5 µg/dL or higher measured within 3 months after consuming a recalled WanaBana, Schnucks, or Weis brand fruit puree product after November 2022. As of March 8, CDC has received reports of 126 confirmed cases, 336 probable cases and 37 suspected cases for a total of 499 cases from 44 different states through their reporting structure. For more information, please visit CDC’s page to review their case reporting methodology and findings.
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