How NC health investigators discovered applesauce was poisoning children

WRAL 5 On Your Side has learned new details about how lead contamination in fruit pouches was discovered in North Carolina.

State and local health specialists were first to identify the problem that led to a massive recall of WanaBana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree pouches, a global investigation and hundreds of potentially connected illnesses.

One of those experts was Alan Huneycutt, a Regional Environmental Health Specialist for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. He told 5 On Your Side he’s been with Children’s Environmental Health for almost 25 years, working in the Charlotte area and other nearby counties in the North Carolina Foothills.

However, it started just like hundreds of others he’s done over his career.

In early July, Huneycutt says he was called in to help investigate two children with elevated levels of lead in their blood in the western part of the state.

Along with an environmental specialist from the local health department, Huneycutt started searching for the source of the lead.

"This is what an XRF is right here," Huneycutt said as he raised a hand-held device to the camera during a Zoom call.

The device is a X-ray fluorescence analyzer used to detect lead, primarily in paint. Huneycutt used it to check all over the home.

"We probably spent about probably two-and-a-half hours, going from room to room," Huneycutt said.

They did find a little bit of lead based paint and a figurine that was high in lead content, but nothing that really stuck out. Huneycutt and the other investigator took samples of dust, water, soil and ash from incense and sent it off to the state lab, hoping to find a more definitive source.

"Nothing came back high [in lead content]," Huneycutt said about that testing.

They kept searching, ordering blood tests for the parents to see if the entire family was exposed to the lead source or just the children. The family was also asked to keep a food log.

Finally, a conversation with the mother gave them the break they’d been looking for.

"[She] said, ‘You know, one thing I had forgotten about are these packets of WanaBana Apple Cinnamon, ah, you know, applesauce,’" Huneycutt recalled.

They had the applesauce tested and got the results back two weeks later.

"The applesauce came back at about 1.9 parts per million. And that that was sort of the ‘ah ha’ moment," Huneycutt said. "When it came back at 1.9 parts per million, anything that’s above 1.0 parts per million our data folks will collect this information, and forward our sampling information to the FDA."

"When I got a sense of these results, and saw what was coming in, I, myself, emailed the FDA, and I remember because it was 10 o’clock at night, but I didn’t want to wait till the next day," said Dr. Susan Kansagra, Assistant Secretary for Public Health with NCDHHS.

The Goolsby’s 1-year-old daughter had a blood test over the summer that showed she had lead poisoning.

The amount of lead in her blood measured 20 micrograms per deciliter; the CDC considers 3.5 high.

Investigators searched all over the family’s Wake Forest home, but for months, couldn’t find the source of the lead.

The recall alert gave them the clue they were looking for and the family cut WanaBana Apple Cinnamon pouches out of their daughter’s diet.

As of late December 2023, their daughters blood lead level was around 8. That’s no longer considered lead poisoning but it’s still elevated.

"We’re glad that we were able to find this and help prevent hundreds of other kids from being impacted by lead poisoning, which we know has long term health consequences," Kansagra said.

According to the CDC, signs and symptoms of lead toxicity vary and could look like a common illness or there may be no immediate symptoms at all.

The long-term effects can cause damage to the brain and nervous system, slow growth and development, and create problems with learning, behavior, hearing and speech.

The CDC recommends kids get a blood lead test done when they turn 1 and 2 years old.

Since the recall alert issued in October 2023, the FDA traced the source of the lead contamination to the cinnamon in the pouches.

Cinnamon was collected from the manufacturer, Austrofoods, in Ecuador. Then, it was tested.

In December, Politico interviewed FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones, who said the agency suspected the contamination was intentional and economically motivated.

That means the cinnamon was altered in some way to increase it’s value, and that alteration may have significantly increased the cinnamon’s lead content. The FDA continues to investigate who contaminated the cinnamon

"You never expect something like this to happen, particularly in a food product," Kansagra said.

Kansagra emphasized that NCDHHS’s discovery of the lead was the result of a team effort.

"We had another investigator doing the same work with another simultaneous case that was happening around the same time [as Huneycutt’s] and brought this to light, too. So, lots of lots of hard work in the field," Kansagra said.

Huneycutt said at least one of the children from his initial investigation is now doing better.

"From my understanding, yes, I was just looking at the results of one of the children and the blood lead levels seem to be much better now," he said.

Everything from the local level, to the international investigation, is why Kansagra said this case is an example of why health funding is so important.

"Public health investment is really important and this is why, this is why it’s so important," she said. "At the end of the day, we’re protecting kids and families, and communities."