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The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office, under the direction
of prosecutors, said a probe was launched after poison turned up
in a baby food jar purchased at a supermarket in the city of
Eisenstadt on April 18.
It said the suspect was being questioned, and that no further
details would be immediately provided. The Burgenland public
prosecutor’s office has announced an investigation into
suspected “intentional endangerment of the public.”
In an email to The Associated Press on Sunday, the Burgenland
police office said the suspect was arrested in Salzburg state,
to the west.
The Austrian Press Agency reported that an expert report on the
toxicity of the poison was pending. A total of five tampered
baby food jars were seized before they could be consumed, APA
reported.
Authorities said previously they believe the tampering occurred
in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and
potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets
in Austria.
HiPP responded by recalling all of its baby food jars sold at
SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and
Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution. Vendors in
Slovakia and the Czech Republic also removed all of the brand’s
baby jars from sale.
The company said the recall was not due to any product or
quality defect on its part, and said the jars left its facility
in “perfect condition.”
Police said a customer at the time of the discovery had reported
that a jar appeared to have been tampered with, but no one had
consumed the baby food.
Pfaffenhofen, Germany-based HiPP said it has been a “victim of
extortion,” adding that an unspecified “blackmailer” sent a
message to a shared mailbox in the case, prompting it to
immediately inform police.
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