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  • 2016-07-18 (xsd:date)
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  • FBI Warning to 'All Americans' About Poisoned Produce (en)
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  • On 18 July 2016 the web site Q Political published an article whose alarming headline (FBI Issues Horrifying Warning to Frequent Grocery Shoppers) and opening paragraphs suggested that federal investigators had issued a general warning to Americans about the United States' food supply: Q Political linked to a Detroit Free Press article as a source for their claims, but the linked article (orignially published in May 2016) specified that concerns about affected grocery stores were limited to those in the area around Ann Arbor, Michigan, and that the FBI had investigated the alleged food contamination and linked it to a single individual there: The newspaper didn't say the FBI issued a general warning about grocery store produce in the affected area (or anywhere else), just that the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development [MDARD] had advised residents of the Ann Arbor region to discard foods that had been purchased from salad bars, olive bars and ready-to-eat hot and cold food areas from these stores between mid-March and the end of April: We contacted MDARD to determine whether the July 2016 article was accurate, or whether it represented a continuation of events that occurred in March and April of 2016. An MDARD representative told us that the agency had issued the original salad bar warning in an abundance of caution, that no one (to their knowledge) had been sickened by the reported incidents, and that a suspect in the case had been arrested in early May 2016. The MDARD representative double-checked with the FBI to ensure that no such general warning had been issued. The original cautionary statement referred only to food from open hot or cold food bars or the produce aisle in one particular store, and only to items purchased between late April and early May 2016; the FBI did not (and has not) urged shoppers to avoid grocery stores in general+. (That remained the case when the already misleading claim was republished by Q Political on 12 May 2017.) (en)
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