Tainted cinnamon applesauce pouches that have sickened scores of children in the U.S. may have been purposefully contaminated with lead, according to FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones.

“We’re still in the midst of our investigation. But so far all of the signals we’re getting lead to an intentional act on the part of someone in the supply chain and we’re trying to sort of figure that out,” Jones said in an exclusive interview. The pouches found to be contaminated were sold under three brands — Weis, WanaBana and Schnucks — that are all linked to a manufacturing facility in Ecuador. The FDA says it’s conducting an inspection of that facility.

“My instinct is they didn’t think this product was going to end up in a country with a robust regulatory process,” Jones said. “They thought it was going to end up in places that did not have the ability to detect something like this.”

    • @chitak166@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Keep increasing the penalty until it actually has an effect.

      Even if it never changes their behavior, all the free money can be used for other things until they go out of business.

      There should be a tiered system, too. First offenders just have to pay a certain amount to cover all expenses and then some. Subsequent offenders should have to pay more, probably double at the minimum.

      Just like how insurers increase rates when we use their services, taxpayers should increase rates for businesses that use their services.

      • @phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        27 months ago

        It never had an effect as the fines are built in, it’s cost of business for them and they fuck over more than the fined van ever make right. Jail the fuckers.