As we move into the holiday season I wanted to learn about some of the holidays Ecuador celebrates, however my eye was drawn to a less cheery article titles “FDA Inspecting Plant in Ecuador the Made Lead-Tainted Fruit Pouches.” The FDA has launched an investigation after at least 64 American children from 27 states reported illness after ingesting one of the pouches. All of the children have been six years old or younger. The pouches, produced by an Astrofoods plant in Ecuador, are widely sold across the United States, mainly in Dollar Trees.
FDA officials have been taking samples from the pouches and sending them in for testing. However, it is expected that most will contain some level of lead that is higher than it ought to be.
Health officials in Ecuador discovered that the likely cause of contamination was the cinnamon from another supplier, Negasmart, that had higher levels of lead than is allowed. Negasmart is now facing sanctions and must track down the cause for the cinnamons higher than normal amounts of lead. The pouches were first recalled in North Carolina after a child tested for lead poisoning.
Hopefully the issue will be taken care of sooner rather than later and there will be a nation-side recall of this product. This is an issue that almost every country has had at some level, including the United States, so I do not think this is another sign of how chaotic Ecuador has become. Luckily, all of the cases that have been reported so far have not been terribly serious.
By: Evelyn
