Food world's version of 'CSI'

WASHINGTON — It wasn't normal for a service at Calvary Baptist Church to end with a 911 call.

Then again, the burning sensation parishioners felt as they sipped their communion grape juice wasn't normal, either.

"As soon as we drank it, we knew something was wrong," said the Rev. Anthony Gibson, the pastor of the church in Darien, Conn.

The congregants called the police. The police called the grape juice company. And the grape juice company called a team of forensic scientists that specializes in fishing clues from fillets and prying confessions from tomato cans.

The 22 chemists, microbiologists and food science experts work for the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., a Washington trade group that represents food companies such as Kraft Foods Inc., Campbell Soup Co. and General Mills Inc.

GMA's members turn to the group's in-house forensics experts when they receive a complaint about an eyelash in a pot pie or a bug in a can of stew. The team of scientists, led by lab director Jeffrey Barach and GMA senior counsel David Herman, are tasked with figuring out whether the company is dealing with a prank, an innocent mistake, a production error or sabotage.

"It really is like 'CSI' trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together," Herman said, referring to the hit CBS television show about crime-scene investigators.

In the 2006 grape juice case, no one else who drank juice made from the same batch as the tainted bottle fell ill. That led GMA's forensic scientists to suspect that someone had tampered with the juice after it was sealed. The burning sensation the congregants reported made them think lye or acid had been added.

The congregants had also said the juice tasted like soap. The sample had foam and a perfume-like smell. Tests revealed that it contained dishwashing detergent. Comparing it to samples of detergent sold in the area, the lab was able to narrow down the likely brands. It turned its results over to the company.

Police independently reached the same conclusions based on analyses by the Connecticut Forensic Laboratory and the Connecticut Toxicology Laboratory, said Capt. Fred Komm of the Darien Police Department. They eventually arrested an employee at the store where the church bought the communion juice.

If having a team of scientists on call sounds like an unusual perk for a food industry trade group to offer, it is.