Police have found two jars of HiPP baby food contaminated with poison in a store in Brno, as described in an email sent by the perpetrator, regional public prosecutor’s office spokesman Petr Luzny told CTK yesterday.
Earlier on Sunday, the producer HiPP announced that rat poison had been found in some jars of baby food in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The company said its retail partners had already withdrawn all jars of HiPP baby food from sale.
“Based on the information released by HiPP itself, I can confirm that, exactly as announced in an email from the perpetrator, police officers found two jars of contaminated baby food at a specific store in Brno,” said Luzny. “They were marked exactly as described by the information, with a white sticker featuring a red circle on the bottom. Examination of the jars is ongoing. We will not be releasing any further information.”
Austrian authorities issued a warning about the contaminated baby food on Saturday, noting that it could also appear in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There is suspicion that HiPP is facing extortion. In the Czech Republic, the case is being investigated by the South Moravia police, public health officials, and the State Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority (SZPI).
The Austrian police, who had warned previously about the contaminated baby food, noted that the problematic jars could be identified by a white sticker with a red circle on the bottom, as well as by an already opened or damaged lid, a missing safety seal, or an unusual smell.
Slovak police said they had received information about the possible contamination of a batch of products distributed to a store in Dunajská Streda, in southern Slovakia.
Detectives in the Austrian state of Burgenland seized one jar that had clearly been tampered with. The baby food, which police say was purchased at a Spar store in Eisenstadt, was reported by a customer from Schutzen am Gebirge. No one had consumed it. On Saturday afternoon, an analysis of a sample from the seized product confirmed the presence of rat poison.
Austrian authorities, cited by the APA news agency, have warned against consuming HiPP baby food purchased at the local Spar chain. The reason was a suspected extortion attempt in Eisenstadt, during which rat poison that reduces blood clotting may have been mixed into the jars.
APA reported that the suspicion concerns the Vegetables with Carrots and Potatoes product, but Spar has withdrawn all HiPP baby food from its 1,500 Austrian stores as a precautionary measure.
Spar left the Czech Republic in 2015.
