County Health Officials Satisfied : No Foreign Objects Found in Baby Food Tests

After making random examinations of baby food jars taken from stores throughout San Diego County, health officials said Monday that they had found no foreign substances in either Gerber or Beechnut products.

Health officials investigated samples of Gerber strained vegetable-lamb dinner and Beechnut strained macaroni-beef dinner Monday after an Escondido mother found a gritty substance she believed to be glass in two such baby food jars Saturday.

As a precautionary measure, 24 San Diego Food Basket stores pulled jars of the two baby food dinners from shelves Saturday, company officials said. The woman was reported to have purchased the jars at an Escondido Avenue Food Basket.

Donald Ramras, county health officer, said investigators obtained samples of the dinners in question from the mother, April Hunt, Sunday. After a chemical analysis and microscopic investigation, Ramras said, no foreign objects were discovered.

“We found nothing,” Ramras said. “We’ve checked her (the mother’s) specimen. We’ve checked other specimens from other bottles and we’ve found nothing.”

Ramras said that the findings will put an end to the county’s investigation. However, Food Basket officials said they will keep the two dinners off their shelves pending further investigation.

“We will wait for the information to come back from the Food and Drug Administration,” said Richard Fredericksen, vice president and marketing director of Food Basket’s southern division. Until then, “we will simply hope that there isn’t a problem.”

Fredericksen said that about 2,000 jars were pulled from shelves. Company officials said they will refund the cost of Gerber baby food from lot 401 C-2, or Beechnut baby food from lot 54R 2544C.

Hunt said she noticed something shiny and gritty in her 8-month-old’s food Saturday. On Sunday, she took the child to Palomar Hospital’s emergency room, where she said doctors found blood in the child’s stool.

Hospital officials would not comment on their findings.

A Los Angeles spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said that he was not aware of any investigation taking place in San Diego. San Diego FDA officials could not be reached for comment.