Rat poison has been found in HiPP baby food jars across Austria, Czechia and Slovakia in what authorities suspect is a blackmail attempt.
https://p.dw.com/p/5CY7rAustrian police found rat poison in a jar carrot and potato puree from HiPP, a German manufacturer of organic baby foodImage: Tobias Steinmaurer/APA/picturedesk.com/picture allianceAdvertisement"HiPP is the victim of blackmail" — this is what the press release from the major German baby food manufacturer says. Over the weekend, jars of baby food contaminated with rat poison were found in Austria and two neighboring countries. Austria's food safety agency AGES issued a warning, and at least one supermarket chain initiated a recall. The focus now is to find out who did it.
The prosecution is investigating attempted blackmail, police in the Germany city of Ingolstadt told DW on Monday. The Ingolstadt unit is responsible because HiPP is based in the nearby town of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm. Police said five jars had been found across three countries.
The first jar was discovered near Eisenstadt in Burgenland, Austria's easternmost province. Initial tests showed that the 190-gram jar of carrot with potato had been contaminated with rat poison. Police are still looking for a second contaminated jar they suspect in the same region.
Two more poisoned jars were found in a shop in the Czech city of Brno. Local media reported that prosecutors said both jars were marked with a white sticker and a red circle, as described by the suspected blackmailer in an email. The AGES warning also mentioned said marking. Contaminated jars were also found in the city of Dunajska Streda in southern Slovakia.
All the jars affected had damaged lids and did not make the usual "pop" sound when opened. Like many foods, baby food is filled hot into jars and sealed with a screw lid; as it cools, a vacuum forms. The popping sound when opening confirms that the jar has not been opened since filling. According to HiPP, the contaminations were "criminal external" manipulations that must have taken place outside the factory premises.
The Ingolstadt police advised consumers to pay close attention to the familiar popping sound, to smell the contents and, if anything seems unusual, not to give the food to their kids and to contact local police immediately. The manufacturer issued a similar advice.
In one previous notorious case, the blackmailer was actually a police officer with the UK's Scotland Yard. In 1988/89, Rodney Whitchelo tampered with baby food using chemicals or razor blades and then placed the jars back on store shelves. He demanded 4 million pounds ($7 million at the time) in ransom but got caught and sentenced to 17 years in prison. This and other cases in the 1980s eventually led to the introduction of "pop" lids that would help consumers check whether anyone had tampered with a jar.
In 2017, several jars of baby food contaminated with antifreeze — each in a potentially lethal dose — were discovered in Friedrichshafen in southwestern Germany. The perpetrator at the time attempted to extort around €12 million (around $14 million at the time) from a supermarket chain. He is currently serving a prison sentence of 10 years.
Again in the United Kingdom, a blackmailer in 2018 tried to extort 1.4 million pounds in Bitcoin. He had put metal pieces into several jars and threatened to contaminate more, including with salmonella. Supermarket surveillance footage led to his arrest, and he was sentenced to 14 years.
In 2025, Polish police arrested a man for allegedly attempting to extort money by threatening to poison baby food. There's no verdict yet though, and no contaminated products were actually found.
Targeting babies and using them for extortion and blackmail demands is widely seen as particularly reprehensible — and therefore guarantees maximum attention and pressure on companies to pay up. In addition, baby food is available in countless stores, giving offenders many possible points of access.
Generally though, baby food is subject to particularly strict controls to minimize any risks. Manufacturers restrict access to their factories and rely on tamper-evident packaging and batch numbers, allowing individual products to be recalled more easily. Some retailers have over recent years also stepped up security by installing surveillance cameras — preventing people from placing contaminated jars on shelves unnoticed.
This article was originally published in German.
