{"id":18330,"date":"2026-04-20T19:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/18330\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:00:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:00:56","slug":"central-europe-recalls-hipp-baby-food-after-rat-poison-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/18330\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Europe recalls HiPP baby food after rat poison scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRAGUE (AP) \u2014 Countries across Central Europe<\/a> pulled baby food off the shelves Monday after rat poison was discovered in some jars of the HiPP brand over the weekend.<\/a><\/p>\n

Austria<\/a> \u2018s health minister told parents, kindergartens and day care centers to use utmost caution when feeding young children HiPP. The company recalled some of its baby food jars because samples there as well as in Slovakia<\/a> and the Czech Republic<\/a> tested positive for rat poison.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-old children that were sold at SPAR supermarkets in Austria. The first sample tested positive on Saturday.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Austrian authorities said they were searching for a second jar of baby food that may have poison. It may have been sold at a Spar supermarket in the eastern town of Eisenstadt, Austrian news agency APA reported.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Rat poison found in some baby food jars in Central Europe leads to recall\n <\/p>\n

AP\u2019s Lisa Dwyer reports authorities have found a disturbing substance in baby food jars in Central Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is deeply disturbing that someone is apparently willing to endanger the health of babies for criminal motives,\u201d Health Minister Korinna Schumann told APA.<\/p>\n

Slovakia and Czech Republic take action<\/p>\n

In the Czech Republic, two jars of HiPP baby food that tested positive for the poison were found in a store in the city of Brno. The state prosecution in Brno confirmed the find but did not give further details, citing a police investigation.<\/p>\n

The Germany-based HiPP said that besides Czechia, contaminated jars were discovered in Slovakia. The company said that \u201cretail partners in both countries have already removed all jars of HiPP baby food from sale as a precaution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slovak police said they were investigating suspicious jars from a store in the city of Dunajska Streda.<\/p>\n

Slovenia<\/a> began preemptively withdrawing all HiPP products from shelves of Spar and other supermarkets, its health inspectorate said.<\/p>\n

Austrian authorities also reached out to Hungarian<\/a> officials, saying a poisoned jar may have been purchased by people living in the border region near Eisenstadt.<\/p>\n

Poisoned jars likely have white sticker with a red circle<\/p>\n

Burgenland Police in Austria said the suspicious products likely have a white sticker with a red circle on the bottom of the jar. Other warning signs include a damaged or opened lid and an unusual or spoiled smell. There might not be a popping noise when the jar is first opened.<\/p>\n

The Burgenland public prosecutor\u2019s office was investigating the case as \u201cintentional endangerment of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

HiPP last week said the recall \u201cis not due to any product or quality defect on our part. The jars left our HiPP facility in perfect condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

HiPP said it was recalling all of its baby food jars<\/a> sold at Austria\u2019s SPAR supermarkets \u2014 which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores \u2014 in Austria as a precaution.<\/p>\n

Rat poison<\/a> typically includes bromadiolone, which prevents blood from clotting, according to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety. Ingesting rat poison could lead to bleeding gums and nosebleeds as well as bruising and blood in the stool.<\/p>\n

Symptoms could appear two to five days after ingestion, the agency said.<\/p>\n

In Prague, Ester Svetlik Danelova, who is currently on maternity leave, told The Associated Press that \u201cthe situation is worrying,\u201d for her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have three kids, and we definitely use this (baby food) throughout their lives,\u201d she said, adding that \u201con the bright side, it means I cook more at home now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalist Stanislav Hodina contributed from Prague. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PRAGUE (AP) \u2014 Countries across Central Europe pulled baby food off the shelves Monday after rat poison was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13450,1452,13448,635,560,13451,13452,4,13392,579,309,6980,6527,13237,13391,62,13449,314],"class_list":["post-18330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-american-psychological-association","tag-austria","tag-austria-government","tag-business","tag-czech-republic","tag-czech-republic-government","tag-ester-svetlik-danelova","tag-europe","tag-food-and-beverage-manufacturing","tag-food-safety","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-hungary-government","tag-korinna-schumann","tag-retail-and-wholesale","tag-slovakia","tag-slovakia-government","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}