Austria arrests suspect in baby-food poisoning case

Austrian authorities have taken a 39-year-old man into custody on suspicion of lacing baby food with rat poison in what investigators believe was a scheme to extort a major manufacturer. The suspect was detained in Burgenland, a region south of Vienna, and now faces charges of recklessly endangering the public and attempting to cause serious bodily harm.

The case came to light two weeks before the arrest, when tainted products linked to HiPP, a German baby food company, were found on store shelves. Five compromised jars were intercepted before reaching consumers, with affected products spread across three countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Among the recovered jars, one purchased from a Spar supermarket in Eisenstadt was found to contain around 15 micrograms of the toxic substance. A second jar from the same outlet is thought to have been tampered with but remains unaccounted for.

Investigators believe the poisoning was intended as leverage against HiPP, which responded by pulling its products from Austrian shelves. Given the company’s German base and the cross-border reach of the contamination, German law enforcement was brought into the probe alongside Austrian officials.

The investigation remains active as authorities continue to assess whether the tampering extended beyond the jars already identified.