STAT+: Applesauce lead contamination could not have been prevented, top FDA officials says
CHICAGO – The FDA’s top food regulator contended Tuesday that the agency could not have done much more to prevent the recent contamination of children’s applesauce with lead.
The official, Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Jim Jones, argued that if companies like the producer of the lead-laced cinnamon in the applesauce “are hell bent about breaking the rules, they’re usually going to get away with it for a little while before they’re stopped.”
Jones, who delivered a keynote address at the annual gathering of the Institute of Food Technologists, also indicated that the agency is hoping to get several major nutrition regulations released this fall, and that it is ramping up its review of food additives to stave off state legislatures’ efforts to pass their own additive laws.
