Father Criticizes Delay After Children Hospitalized Over Fruit Puree, Says He Ended Up Under Police Investigation

Several children were taken to hospital on Thursday after eating fruit puree, and Israel’s Health Ministry later said it was investigating the circumstances. But one father, identified as A. and the parent of two of the affected children, says authorities still have not told the families what caused the symptoms or why the product was not examined immediately.

According to A., the episode began Thursday evening when his children were playing with neighbors’ children. Three of the children ate apple puree from a red package, and soon after some of them began to look unwell. “The neighbors’ children started falling, almost fainting, they didn’t speak and didn’t walk,” he said. A. said his daughter also became unstable moments later, prompting his wife to call him, summon Magen David Adom, and take the child to Hadassah Ein Kerem in Jerusalem.

He said firefighters first checked whether there had been a gas leak, then investigators considered whether municipal spraying in a kindergarten or park was responsible, but those possibilities were ruled out. A. says he delivered the puree to the hospital that same Thursday night so it could be tested. He complained that when he contacted the Health Ministry on Sunday, officials seemed unaware of the case despite paperwork stating it had been reported to them. “I’ve been chasing them for days,” he said. “This is a danger to life.”

The situation escalated further when police summoned A. and his wife for a two-hour interrogation on suspicion of abusing helpless persons. “They told me, ‘The children arrived dazed, you abused them,’” he said, adding that his daughter, age 3, ate only “one or two spoonfuls” and was discharged after improving, while his son did not eat the puree and was checked only out of caution. A. said if the product is implicated it should be pulled from shelves, and if not, the family deserves an explanation. Police said they are pursuing the truth in a sensitive investigation involving infants, while the company Randy said its products are tested before export and on entry to Israel, that no foreign substances were found in factory samples, and that additional samples were sent to the Health Ministry. The ministry had not commented further.