April 20, 2026, 12:26 p.mApril 20, 2026, 12:26 p.m
Police in Austria have expanded the search for a possibly poisoned jar of baby food.
“We are pulling out all the stops and have now contacted kindergartens and care facilities,” said a spokeswoman for the police in the state of Burgenland.
At the weekend, a 190 gram jar of “carrots with potatoes” contaminated with rat poison was seized from the Hipp company in Burgenland. At least two glasses are said to have been circulated in this region.
The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (Ages) wrote on Saturday about a suspected blackmail attempt. She later deleted this reference from her press release. In Germany, the police in Ingolstadt are investigating. According to the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria North, Germany is not affected.
The report is intended to determine the dose of rat poison
According to their own statements, the public prosecutor’s office in Austria is investigating the case for “intentional endangerment of the public”. After the preliminary toxicological report, which found rat poison in the seized glass, a more detailed investigation was carried out. It will be about the dose and how dangerous the rat poison would have been if consumed, according to a spokeswoman for the Burgenland public prosecutor’s office.
According to the police, tampered jars could be identified by a damaged lid or the absence of a popping sound when opened. In addition, the manipulated glasses should have a white sticker with a red ring on the bottom of the glass.
Several countries affected
Products and sales channels in Germany or other European countries that are not part of the investigation are not affected, Hipp spokesman Clemens Preysing told the German Press Agency at the weekend.
He confirmed that, in addition to Austria, manipulated jars contaminated with rat poison had also appeared in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The trading partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia had taken all Hipp glasses out of sale as a precaution, said the Hipp spokesman. He spoke of “an external criminal intervention.” “The incident has no connection with product quality or manufacturing,” he emphasized. (sda/dpa)