Supermarket tampering: Cocaine detected in syringes and in fruit

Product tampering, as detailed by the Federal Anti-Tampering Act of 1983 (1 ), is a felony punishable by both fine and imprisonment. The rationale for product tampering ranges from pranks and attention seeking acts to extortio n, terrorism, and homicide. One such case submitted for analysis involved f our medical syringes found in a supermarket and suspected of being used to tamper with various products. One of the syringes was found piercing a pear while the other three syringes were found with needles exposed in other pa rts of the supermarket. Microscopic analysis was used to collect residue fr om the syringe barrels and the pear. A multidiscipline approach involving S LM, PLM, including microchemical analysis, FTIR, and GC/MS analyses, perfor med on the residual liquid found in the syringe barrels and in the suspect pear, confirmed the presence of cocaine. This multidisciplinary approach is often necessary when there is a possible health risk to the public and rap id response is important. With this approach, it was quickly determined whi ch drugs or poisons were used in this tampering.