VIENNA, April 20 (Reuters) – Jars of baby food deliberately tainted with rat poison and found in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were part of an attempt to extort their manufacturer, and one jar could still be unaccounted for, the company and German police said on Monday.
Five “manipulated” jars from German brand HiPP were retrieved safely in those countries before they were consumed, police in the city of Ingolstadt said in a statement after Austrian supermarket chain Spar issued an urgent product recall over the weekend.
But one more contaminated jar could still be in circulation in Austria, the police added. Austrian police said on Saturday the tainted jar they had found tested positive for rat poison.
“HiPP is the victim of an extortion attempt,” the German company said in a statement, saying the person trying to extort the company had sent it a message. It said the jars had been tampered with but did not mention poison.
Austrian authorities have warned consumers to be on the lookout for the jars containing a blend of potato and carrot, adding that they have had a white sticker with a red circle added to the bottom and they had been opened, meaning the lids do not make the usual popping sound when they are twisted.
COMPANY NOT AWARE OF OTHER INSTANCES
“Ingolstadt police is conducting an investigation under the supervision of the Ingolstadt prosecutors’ office into persons unknown on suspicion of attempted extortion against baby food producer HiPP,” the police said in a statement shortly before HiPP’s.
It did not provide specifics on the attempt but said all necessary measures were taken once an email by the presumed culprits came to light on April 16.
Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported on Monday, before the German police statement, that an email was sent to HiPP on March 27 and gave the company until April 2 to pay 2 million euros ($2.35 million) or two jars of baby food would be poisoned in each of three specific supermarkets in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria.
Without providing dates, HiPP said the message it received was sent to “an unpersonalised collective address that, as part of our standard processes, is viewed on occasions that are quite far apart”, and that it had informed the authorities as soon as it became aware of it.
The company said it was important to note that the incident had nothing to do with the quality of its products.
“This is a criminal, external manipulation beyond our control in three shops. We are not aware of any further instances of manipulation,” it said.
($1 = 0.8494 euros)
(Reporting by Francois MurphyAdditional reporting by Olivia Poidevin in Geneva and Jan Lopatka in Prague; Editing by Alison Williams)
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