
Great Britain faced its worse case of food tampering in 1989, when slivers of glass, razors blades, pins and caustic soda were found in products of two of the nation's largest baby food manufacturers, H.J. Heinz and Cow & Gate. The scare began with a blackmailer trying to extort $1.7 million from Heinz, and then escalated as copycats capitalised on the initial report. More recently, in 2004, two jars of baby food were found to be contaminated with ground castor beans which contain trace amounts of the poison ricin. One of the jars contained a note warning that the baby food had been contaminated.