To date over 60 children under 5 years of age have been diagnosed with lead toxicity after consuming specific brands of applesauce puree seasoned with cinnamon.  Wanabana brand and equivalent products sold by Schnuck’s and Weis Markets have been recalled.

Individual companies have screened cinnamon from Ecuador and have demonstrated elevated levels of lead.  The question arises as to how manufactured product had lead levels over 200 times the FDA limit but with a theoretically disproportionately lower level of lead only from the cinnamon additive. 

Although the FDA reacted quickly and ordered a recall in response to epidemiologic investigations by health authorities in North Carolina who blew the whistle, there has yet to be a comprehensive report indicating how such high levels of lead were present in the puree product irrespective of the presence of contamination in cinnamon.  When will the public health community receive data and an interpretation from the FDA since this is an unresolved issue?