A man was arrested after allegedly tampering with pizza dough at one or more supermarkets by stuffing razor blades into the food.
Nicholas R. Mitchell from Dover, New Hampshire, was arrested on suspicion of food tampering after he allegedly stuffed razor blades into pizza dough sold at a supermarket in Maine.
According to the Saco Police Department, they have received a report of suspected food tampering on October 6 after a customer who shopped at a local Hannaford Supermarket discovered razor blades in the fresh pizza dough they had bought.
Following the dangerous finding, an investigation was launched and the review of security footage from the store revealed that a person was tampering with pizza dough that was later bought by one of the supermarket’s customers.
“The review of store security surveillance footage revealed a person tampered with the packaging of several Portland Pie Pizza doughs,” the police explained.
As a result of the investigation, the New Hampshire Police Department arrested Mitchell on suspicion of food tampering.
While a motive for the vile act hasn’t been revealed as of this writing, the authorities have confirmed that Mitchell used to be an associate of the It’ll Be Pizza company which reportedly makes pizza dough for Portland Pie.
Following the incident, Hannaford Supermarket was forced to issue a recall for all Portland Pie products sold since the beginning of August.
The recall affects products bought at the company’s 184 stores located across New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
“After what is believed to be further malicious tampering incidents involving metal objects inserted into Portland Pie products, Hannaford has removed all Portland Pie products from all store shelves and has paused replenishment of the products indefinitely,” the Hannaford statement reads.
According to the reports, no injuries related to the food tampering case have been reported.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Hannaford has expanded its recall for Portland Pie pizza dough to include all Portland Pie branded products at all Hannaford stores,” the supermarket’s spokesperson, Ericka Dodge, said.
Replaced!