ROCHESTER, N.Y. – This week the FDA slammed Dollar Tree for having lead-laden applesauce on the shelves weeks after the recall.

You may remember, that I conducted my investigation of local Dollar Tree Stores and found a box of recalled applesauce in a Rochester store and the FDA said Dollar Tree’s efforts to protect the public were ineffective.

On Thursday, I had some questions for the discount chain. In our area, there was only one store selling the lead-laden applesauce Wanabana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree: Dollar Tree.

The FDA describes the lead levels as extremely high – so high that children were being diagnosed with acute lead toxicity, one of whom was a child in our area.

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

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

Right away, I reached out to the discount retailer and a spokesman wrote, “We are committed to the integrity and safety of the products we sell. The safety feature you noticed is used in all of our stores and is programmed directly into our point-of-sale system, managed by our corporate office.”

But in its letter to Dollar Tree, the FDA said that the point-of-sale alarm system was insufficient. Pointing to an incident in Washington State when a shopper let their child eat a food pouch off the shelf before paying only to learn when they tried to pay that the product had been recalled.

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

So on Thursday, I sent Dollar Tree an email with some pointed questions, including why headquarters failed to inform some Dollar Tree stores to remove the product from store shelves.

Dollar Tree replied in part, “In October of 2023. Dollar Tree took immediate action and began executing a recall of 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 October 29 recall.

In fairness, Dollar Tree sent me a long list of actions it has taken to make sure recalled products are removed from store shelves including hiring new executives to oversee compliance and establishing a group that will initiate the execution of recalls, developing an FDA recall checklist, as well as a point-of-sale alarm system within 15 minutes of learning of a recalled product.

Dollar Tree is not the only retailer where I’ve found recalled products. I’ve done a number of investigations of dangerous products still being sold on Amazon days after the announced recall.

It clearly leaves the responsibility of ensuring our children are safe largely up to us. Before you buy a baby product, it’s a good rule of thumb to simply google the name of the product and recall making sure the item is safe.