Consumer Alert: Investigation Finds Recalled Lead-Containing Applesauce Still on Dollar Tree Shelves

ROCHESTER, NY – This week, the FDA slammed Dollar Tree for keeping lead-containing applesauce on its shelves weeks after the recall.

You may recall that in my investigation of local Dollar Tree stores, I found a box of recalled applesauce at a Rochester store and the FDA stated that Dollar Tree’s efforts to protect the public had been ineffective.

On Thursday I had a few questions for the discount chain. In our area there was only one store that sold the lead-containing apple sauce Wanabana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree: Dollar Tree.

The FDA describes the lead levels as extremely high. So high that children have been diagnosed with acute lead poisoning, one of them a child in our area.

Dr. Michael Mendoza: “Through our investigation, we determined that the person had consumed one of the recalled applesauce products.”

So when the recall was announced last November, I waited a few weeks before visiting Dollar Tree stores to see if they were complying with the recall. I searched local Dollar Tree stores and found a box of the recalled apple cinnamon on a store shelf. To test whether the retailer still sold the product, I tried to purchase it. But an alarm alerted the clerk that the product had been recalled.

I contacted the discount retailer immediately and a spokesperson wrote: “We take the integrity and security of the products we sell very seriously. The security feature you noticed is used in all of our stores and is programmed directly into our point of sale system, which is managed from our corporate headquarters.”

But in its letter to Dollar Tree, the FDA said the alert system at the stores was inadequate, citing an incident in Washington state where a customer allowed his child to eat a bag of food from the shelf before paying, only to discover at checkout that the product had been recalled.

The letter goes on to say that as of December 19, investigators “continued to find the recalled product on Dollar Tree store shelves.”

So I emailed Dollar Tree on Thursday with some pointed questions, including why headquarters hadn’t notified some Dollar Tree stores to remove the product from shelves.

Dollar Tree responded in part: “In October 2023, Dollar Tree took immediate action and began recalling Wanabana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree Pouch.”

But in its response to FDA inquiries, Dollar Tree admits that it notified Dollar Tree stores of the recall on November 22, 2023, three weeks after Wanabana’s recall on October 29.

To be fair, Dollar Tree sent me a long list of the steps the company has taken to ensure recalled products are removed from shelves, including hiring new executives to oversee compliance, creating a group to initiate recalls, developing an FDA recall checklist, and an alert system at points of sale that goes off within 15 minutes of being notified of a recalled product.

Dollar Tree isn’t the only retailer where I’ve found recalled products. I’ve conducted several investigations into dangerous products still being sold on Amazon days after the recall was announced.

So it is largely our responsibility to ensure the safety of our children. Before buying any baby product, a good rule of thumb is to simply google the name of the product and make sure that the item is safe.