LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - At least one jar of Gerber baby food sold in Southern California was found to have been contaminated with non-lethal amounts of the poison ricin, authorities said on Wednesday.
In two separate incidents, parents in Irvine, California discovered notes inside jars of Gerber banana yogurt warning that the food was contaminated, an FBI spokeswoman said.
The FBI did not specify how many jars of food tested positive for the potentially fatal poison. The FBI spokeswoman said no one had been arrested in the case.
Local television news reported that police planned to name a "person of interest" at a news conference set for 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT).
A Gerber spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Gerber Products Company is a unit of pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG.NVS.N> .
On May 31, a couple brought their 9-month-old girl to an Irvine hospital after she ate from a jar that contained the first note, police said.
Three weeks later, an Irvine man called police to report finding a similar note inside a jar of Gerber banana yogurt that he had been feeding his 1-year-old son. Neither child was harmed by the food, police said.
Both notes also mentioned an Irvine police officer, but authorities were unsure whether the person who tampered with the baby food meant to retaliate against the officer.
Careful when feeding the baby in CA... Yikes!
In two separate incidents, parents in Irvine, California discovered notes inside jars of Gerber banana yogurt warning that the food was contaminated, an FBI spokeswoman said.
The FBI did not specify how many jars of food tested positive for the potentially fatal poison. The FBI spokeswoman said no one had been arrested in the case.
Local television news reported that police planned to name a "person of interest" at a news conference set for 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT).
A Gerber spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Gerber Products Company is a unit of pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG.NVS.N> .
On May 31, a couple brought their 9-month-old girl to an Irvine hospital after she ate from a jar that contained the first note, police said.
Three weeks later, an Irvine man called police to report finding a similar note inside a jar of Gerber banana yogurt that he had been feeding his 1-year-old son. Neither child was harmed by the food, police said.
Both notes also mentioned an Irvine police officer, but authorities were unsure whether the person who tampered with the baby food meant to retaliate against the officer.
Careful when feeding the baby in CA... Yikes!
