New Delhi: Rat poison was found in a jar of HiPP baby food in Austria on Saturday, according to a Reuters report. According to a statement from police in Burgenland, a sample from one of the 190-gram jars of carrot with potato baby food in the Eisenstadt-Umgebung district had tested positive for rat poison.
The company in a statement said that its HiPP Vegetable Carrot with Potato jars may have been tampered with. The product was called from 1,500 SPAR supermarkets in the country over safety fears.
The Austrian police further said that authorities were warned about the risk after investigations in Germany. The police said the jar was tampered with adding that at least one more poisoned jar is in circulation. The authorities have issued guidelines on how to recognise tampered jars.
Products removed from other countries too
“Products and distribution channels in Germany or other European countries that are not part of the investigations are not affected,” the Germany-based HiPP said in a statement. On Saturday, the company had added, “According to our current knowledge, this critical situation involves an external criminal interference that affects the SPAR Austria distribution channel.”
The company has removed the HiPP products from countries including Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia and Northern Italy. It has also advised the customers to not eat contents of the jars brought from SPAR Austria. SPAR and HiPP promised full refund on returned products.
‘Jars left factories in perfect condition’
The company further said the jars left factories in perfect condition. “The recall is related to a criminal act that is being investigated by the authorities,” it said on its website.
“As part of ongoing criminal investigations, isolated cases of tampered HiPP baby food jars have been seized – as previously reported in Austria, now also in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The responsible authorities determined upon examination of these jars that they contained rat poison,” it added.
Meanwhile, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety has asked people to seek immediate medical help if babies consumed the contaminated food.
The incident comes after Nestle and Danone also had to issue recalls of infant formula over contamination fears earlier this year.