Austrian police have launched an urgent investigation after rat poison was discovered in jars of HiPP baby food sold through SPAR supermarkets, prompting an immediate withdrawal of the product from more than 1,500 stores across the country and raising fears that additional contaminated jars may still be in circulation.
The alarm was raised after a customer reported a problem with a 190-gram jar of HiPP’s Carrots and Potatoes baby food in the Burgenland region of Austria. Laboratory testing confirmed the presence of rat poison — a substance the company described as potentially life-threatening if consumed. HiPP said it had no reason to believe the contamination occurred during its own manufacturing process, and pointed instead to what it described as deliberate criminal interference within the SPAR Austria distribution chain. “According to our current knowledge, this critical situation involves an external criminal interference that affects the SPAR Austria distribution channel,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.
The scale of the response reflects the seriousness with which authorities are treating the incident. SPAR confirmed the recall was being conducted as a precautionary measure across all 1,500 of its Austrian stores, though it stressed that no other markets or distribution channels outside Austria had been affected. Customers who purchased the product from SPAR Austria have been advised not to consume the contents under any circumstances and have been assured of a full refund upon returning the jars.
Police issued specific guidance to help shoppers identify potentially affected products. Jars to be concerned about include those bearing a sticker with a red circle on the base, those with lids that appear to have been previously opened or which are damaged, any jar missing its safety seal, or products with an unusual smell. Anyone who has come into direct contact with a jar has been advised to wash their hands thoroughly.
Concern has also spread beyond Austria’s borders. Initial laboratory tests conducted on similar jars seized by police in the Czech Republic and Slovakia indicated the presence of a toxic substance, though full results are still pending. The findings have deepened the urgency of the investigation and raised questions about how widely the tampered stock may have been distributed before the recall was initiated.
HiPP, a German company widely regarded as one of Europe’s most trusted manufacturers of organic baby food, said it was working closely with police and could not yet rule out that further jars within the affected supply line had been interfered with. The company’s Vegetable Carrot with Potato range has been specifically identified as the product under scrutiny.
Austrian police confirmed the investigation was ongoing late on Saturday night. No arrests have been reported.
