A suspected tampering case involving PrinoK fruit puree could have been uncovered a month before the latest incident. The first case involved two children who arrived at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem with similar symptoms after eating a jar bought at a Zol VeGadol branch. Hospital staff handed the puree to police, but the Health Ministry did not ask to test it at the time, and it remained in police custody as evidence.
Only after a second incident last Thursday, when three children were rushed to the same hospital at the same time, did the ministry request the original jar for testing. Laboratory checks found clonazepam, sold as Klonex, and lorazepam, sold as Lorivan, both benzodiazepine sedatives. Police are still trying to identify who put the substances into the jars. In both cases, the mothers later said they did not hear the usual click when opening the jar, suggesting someone had opened it before them.
Police said they immediately informed the Health Ministry after the first report and kept the product as evidence because they were not then told to send it for testing. After the second incident, the same jar was tested under ministry instructions, and the case was transferred to the Jerusalem district's special crime-fighting unit. The Health Ministry said it had been in close contact with police from the first case and that this was not a routine food safety incident, but one that required both agencies to use all their powers to find the cause and prevent a repeat.
On Wednesday night, the ministry issued 30-day closure orders for two Jerusalem Zol VeGadol branches, on Jaffa Street 214 and 113, where the puree was sold. The orders said the product, PrinoK apple and banana with oats, contained benzodiazepines, a dangerous active drug not meant for food, and that both branches had operated without a business license. A Jerusalem Magistrate's Court hearing was later held on the chain's request to cancel the closures.
The chain's lawyer, Shalom Foris, argued there was no evidence supporting the orders and suggested the contamination could have happened anywhere along the supply chain or even inside the store. Owner Avi Yochanan said he learned about the case from the media, insisted the product format sold in his stores did not match the one under suspicion, and said the business suffered heavy losses. The importer, Randi, said the facts point to deliberate external tampering, while the Health Ministry said no industrial defect or factory contamination had been found and there is no general recall of PrinoK, only a warning not to consume jars from the two stores or any package without the normal opening sound.
