A Jerusalem mother, Shifi, has given the first public account of the incident that led to a police investigation into baby food contaminated with sedatives. She said that last Thursday she was sitting with her children in the yard of her home when her 3-year-old son asked for food. She opened a jar of Frinook fruit purée bought at a Zol u’B’Gadol store and fed him, while her 10-month-old daughter also ate several spoonfuls. A neighbor’s 2-year-old daughter, who was sitting nearby, ate one spoonful.
Moments later, Shifi said, the children began to deteriorate. Her daughter became pale and unsteady, and her son started falling repeatedly, then closed his eyes and muttered strange sounds. Shifi called an ambulance. On the way to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, staff already suspected something serious, and she said even the paramedics seemed stressed. At the hospital, her son was completely apathetic and did not react to needle sticks, which she said was unusual because he fears medical tests. Doctors first told her it did not appear to be food related, then said it looked like poisoning.
The mother said firefighters and police searched the house and yard but found nothing. The neighbor’s daughter also collapsed and was hospitalized. Shifi said the child who ate the most, her son, was in the worst condition. The breakthrough came when a nurse said there had been a similar case a few weeks earlier, which helped investigators identify the purée as the common factor. Her children were hospitalized for four days, and she said it took several more days before her son could walk and speak normally again.
Laboratory tests by Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed that the purée jars contained clonazepam and lorazepam, sedatives from the benzodiazepine family known as Klonex and Lorivan. Police assigned the case to the Zion district’s anti-crime unit, which is working openly and covertly to trace the source of the drugs and how they were introduced into the products. Two Zol u’B’Gadol branches in Jerusalem, on Jaffa Street 113 and 214, were ordered closed immediately.
The Health Ministry said there is no general recall of all Frinook products, because tests on imported goods were normal and there is no sign the contamination came from the factory. However, it warned people not to consume products bought in the two branches, items not sold in their original packaging, or jars that do not make the usual pop sound when opened. Shifi said she is traumatized and will not buy the product again, adding that it remains unclear how the substances got there or who is responsible.
