Astonishing Notice

Folks:

Rather alarming this notice (see the date)...then read the two after it.


News 03/13/1989

Chilean Grapes

P89-11 Food and Drug Administration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Bill Grigg - (301) 443-3285

The Food and Drug Administration said today it has found and confirmed
traces of cyanide in a small sample of seedless red grapes from Chile and, as
a result, is detaining all grapes and other fruit from that country and is
urging that they be withdrawn from the U.S. market.

Consumers are being advised to check the source of any fresh, non-citrus
fruit and not to eat any Chilean fruit they have on hand. ...
Chilean-originated fruit sold in the United States at this time of year are
peaches, blueberries, blackberries, seedless watermelon, cantaloupes, Juan
Canary and honeydew melons, raspberries, nectarines, quince, Granny Smith
green apples, cactus pears, pears and plums. While no cyanide has been
detected in any of this fruit, as a precaution consumers are advised to avoid
any fruit from Chile at this time.

The low levels of cyanide in the grapes were detected and confirmed by
laboratory tests in two punctured grapes spotted among hundreds of crates of
grapes inspected at the port in Philadelphia. The two grapes were also
discolored, with a ring of crystaline material around the puncture area. A
third grape adjacent on the bunch was slashed, but cyanide could not be
detected in it. ... FDA said that since potassium or sodium cyanide converts
to
hydrogen cyanide in acid fruit and then can dissipate, scientists could not
determine how much of the poison was originally introduced.

"This may be an isolated incident," FDA Commissioner Frank E. Young, M.D.,
Ph.D., said, "but we can hardly take that chance."

HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., said, "We regret any adverse effect
this action may have on the Chilean fruit industry and the people of Chile."

***
Amazing. The inspectors went straight to the 3 poisoned grapes. None other
in the entire could be found.

***

Chilean fruit embargo of 1989

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) embargoed 2 million crates of
Chilean grapes for 11 days in overreaction to questionable test data
concerning low levels of
cyanide in two grapes. Over 20,000 Chilean workers lost their jobs, and the
U.S. was sued for $330 million as a result.

The killer grapes terrorized American consumers, swept tons of fruit off
supermarket shelves, and severely damaged the Chilean economy. First
perceived as an averted
tragedy and then as an overreaction by the FDA, it now appears that the
Chilean Grape Scare of 1989 was a farce. The fruit producers claim that the
suspect grapes were most
likely contaminated not by terrorists in Chile, as the FDA first implied, but
by the FDA itself.

On March 2, 1989, an anonymous caller to the U.S. Embassy in Santiago warned
that fruit headed for the United States had been injected with cyanide as an
act of protest
against the Pinochet regime. The call was repeated on March 8. Three days
later the FDA spotted three suspicious-looking grapes on the docks at
Philadelphia, in a shipment
that had just arrived from Chile. Two of the grapes had puncture marks
surrounded by concentric white rings; the third grape was slashed.

The fruit was rushed to the FDA's Philadelphia laboratory, where the two
punctured grapes were tested and found to contain cyanide. The FDA impounded
2 million crates at
airports and docks across the country and warned consumers not to eat any
fruit from Chile, which included most of the peaches, blueberries,
blackberries, melons, green
apples, pears, and plums that were on the market at the time.

If the two suspected grapes had been injected with cyanide, the surrounding
grapes in the bunch and the box itself would likely show traces of the
poison. Using the same
tests as did the chemists in Philadelphia, not a trace of cyanide
contamination was found in the grapes or on anything else.

The obvious next step was to retest the Philadelphia sample. However, as the
Chileans reveal in their suit, the Philadelphia sample had been destroyed. In
violation of both the
Code of Federal Regulations and the FDA Regulatory Procedures Manual, which
require that part of any original sample be set aside for just such a
situation, the Philadelphia
lab had used sodium hydroxide to neutralize the grape sample, instead of
liquid nitrogen. Sodium hydroxide rendered the sample useless for further
tests.

Noting that the anonymous caller had specifically said the fruit would be
"injected" with cyanide, the FDA had attempted to poison some grapes of their
own, according to
documents filed with the court. Lab studies had shown that the internal
pressure of the fruit pulp in grapes would force virtually all of the cyanide
injected back out onto the
surface of the grape. This would turn the grape black, hardly an effective
poisoning technique.

The box containing the suspect grapes had been loaded aboard the Almaria Star
in a position that was inaccessible during the entire voyage. If the grapes
had not been
poisoned in Chile, and could not have been reached aboard ship, then they had
to have been contaminated in Philadelphia while under FDA control.

However, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that the fruit posed no
danger, the FDA announced the embargo. National television urged consumers to
throw away the fruit
they had on hand and instructed grocers to pull it from their shelves. The
agency declined to be interviewed for this story, but the answer may be
relatively simple: the FDA
panicked.


****

In the late 1980's, USA trade negotiators were not pleased with Chile, and
their independent ways. The Chilean economy was booming.

***
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
Wednesday, February 2, 1994

Q A brief question on Latin America. Yesterday, there was a (inaudible)
meeting between the two group negotiations from the U.S. and Chile to settle
the case of the poison
grapes. I understand the negotiations are pretty close to being closed.

I would like to know what kind of compensation is planning for the U.S. to
give to Chile? And if that kind of compensation in any degree assess any kind
of responsibility
from the U.S. Government in the case?

MR. McCURRY: I am a total blank slate on that question, so I'll have to check
further and see if we can find something out. I follow a lot of things but I
have not followed that
issue. We'll try to find some more and we'll take the question and see if we
can prepare some answer for you.

***
End of story.

John Spiers

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