Video Claims Bug Larvae in Earth’s Best Baby Food Pouch

A Facebook video claimed to show “bug larvae” in an Earth’s Best Butternut Squash Pear Baby Food Puree pouch.

In a video posted to Facebook, dated November 11, 2013, a mother claimed to have found bug larvae in the pouch after her baby spit the food out. The caption for the video states:

Warning for all those that feed their babies from Baby food pouches!!!! This just happened to me! I bought 4 pouches at Target this evening. We got home, I gave Molly the bag and she tried it and spit it out! Then I tried it, squirted it in my mouth and almost threw up! I spit it in the sink to find bug larvae!! Yes!! Watch the video to see them for yourself!

In the video, the mother zoomed in on the baby food and stated, “If you look really closely, you can see the maggots crawling around.” It doesn’t appear that the red pieces in the baby food are not the bug larvae in question. At approximately 30 seconds into the video, it appears that a white larva can be seen crawling along the left side of the baby food (see image below).

The video received nearly 300,000 shares in the first 48 hours, prompting a response from Earth’s Best.

Earth’s Best Response #1

The following response was published on Earth’s Best Facebook page a day after the video was posted:

Nothing is more important to us than providing the safest products we can because these are the very same products we feed our own infants and toddlers. As soon as we learned about a video posted on Facebook, we reached out to the mom who posted it and we were then able to start checking samples of the product from the same production run that we have retained ourselves to make sure that there are no possible sources of contamination.

While our investigation is ongoing, we want to reassure you that all Earth’s Best pouch products are manufactured to ensure safety, quality and stability. We always do our best to ensure product quality and follow up quickly and fully with any complaint or issues that any mom or dad may have brought to our attention. We are doing that right now.

We have worked hard to gain your trust for over twenty five years. We will always take every action to ensure that our products meet the Earth Best standard of quality you have grown to love and to show you that your trust in us has not been misplaced.

As a reminder, many of us are moms and dads too and take this very seriously.

If you have any questions or concerns about our products, we urge you to call us at (800) 442-4221 or e-mail us at [email protected].

Discussion

In the comments for the above post, Earth’s Best also claimed that they checked samples from the same production run as the pouch in the video, and found “no signs of contamination.” Other comments have ranged from those who claimed they saw nothing moving in the video, to some citing similar experiences with other flavors.

Earth’s Best Response #2

In a second response to this video, Earth’s Best claimed to have gone to the store where the mother purchased the pouches.

We went to the store where the mom who posted the video on Facebook said she purchased the product. We bought a variety of samples of Earth’s Best Organic® Butternut Squash Pear Baby Food Puree in a pouch that was on the store shelves, including two from the same production date. Our testing did not show any contaminants or any signs of potential contamination and the product met our stringent quality standards.

Further, the company claims to have been in contact with the mother, who changed her mind in letting the company review the pouch seen in the video:

We reached out to the mom who posted the video to arrange for us to inspect and test the pouch she had purchased. She initially agreed to allow us to retrieve the product, and we quickly arranged to pick up the product, but she changed her mind. Therefore, we have not been able to determine if there was some damage to the product after it left our control that could have compromised the product’s integrity.

Video Disappears

The video in question has since been removed.

Capri Sun

This video is reminiscent of claims of mold and worms in Capri Sun pouches in February 2013. After Capri Sun acknowledged that mold is possible in drink pouches, many users suggested using clear pouches in order to see the contents. Capri Sun responded that clear pouches were problematic in the manufacturing process.

Similarly, Earth’s Best customers have also suggested clear pouches.

Bottom Line

The Facebook video did appear to show something crawling in the Earth’s Best baby food, but that video has since been removed. The company has said they are investigating, but found no similar contamination in on-site samples or in samples purchased from the same store as the mother claimed.

Last updated November 14, 2013