Food Tampering: [1989] Glass in baby food

By 25. March 2014Blog, Risk Management

Rodney Whitchelo, a former Scotland yard detective caused Heinz to remove over £30 million worth of baby food from supermarket shelves back in 1989 in the UK after contaminating some of it with glass shards and razor blades.

How did he do it? He bought them in the supermarket, contaminated them and then returned them to the supermarket shelf. He actually started by contaminating pet food but realised there was more money to be extorted by contaminating baby food, what a nice guy.

He was caught in the end when he tried to withdraw some of the money he had extorted, not realising that the police had been staking out hundreds of cash machines waiting for him. He was sentenced to 17 years but was released after 10.

Click here to read more details of the story in: The New York Times, The LA Times and The free library.