U.S. food inspectors found “extremely high” levels of lead in cinnamon at a plant in Ecuador that made applesauce pouches tainted with the metal, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday. The recalled pouches have been linked to dozens of illnesses in U.S. kids.
Cinnamon tested from the plant had lead levels more than 2,000 times higher than a maximum level proposed by the FDA, officials said.
The samples came from ground or powdered cinnamon from Negasmart, an Ecuadorian company that supplied the spice to Austrofoods, which made the pouches. The applesauce pouches were sold under three brands — WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis. Officials with Austrofoods did not respond to requests for comment about the investigation.
I am. These things have a tendency to grow, not shrink in scope. So we aren’t doing anything with cinnamon for now. Thankfully we never used those brands and we didn’t really have anything with cinnamon to begin with.
But it wouldn’t hurt to avoid it for now. There are so many options to choose from its such a low effort mitigation.