Poisoned baby food in circulation - police sound the alarm

The police in Austria have widened their search for a possibly poisoned jar of baby food. "We are pulling out all the stops and have now also contacted kindergartens and care facilities," said a police spokeswoman in the province of Burgenland.

At the weekend, a 190 gram jar of "carrots with potatoes" from the Hipp company contaminated with rat poison was seized in Burgenland. At least two jars are said to have been circulated in this region.

The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (Ages) wrote on Saturday about a suspected blackmail attempt. It later removed this reference from its press release. In Germany, the criminal investigation department in Ingolstadt is investigating. However, according to the police headquarters of Upper Bavaria North, Germany is not affected.

Expert opinion to determine dose of rat poison

According to its own statements, the public prosecutor's office in Austria is investigating "intentional endangerment of the public". Following the preliminary toxicological report, in which rat poison was found in the seized jar, a more detailed investigation will be carried out. This will focus on the dose and how dangerous the rat poison would have been if consumed, according to a spokeswoman for the Burgenland public prosecutor's office.

According to the police, tampered jars could be recognized by a damaged lid or the lack of a pop sound when opened. The tampered jars would also have a white sticker with a red ring on the bottom of the jar.

Czech Republic and Slovakia also affected

Products and distribution channels in Germany or other European countries that are not part of the investigation are not affected, Hipp spokesperson Clemens Preysing told the German press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur at the weekend.

He confirmed that in addition to Austria, tampered jars contaminated with rat poison had also turned up in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The trading partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia had withdrawn all Hipp jars from sale as a precautionary measure, said the Hipp spokesman. He spoke of "an external criminal intervention." "The incident has nothing to do with product quality or production," he emphasized.