* 1982: Food terrorism hits the headlines as Tylenol painkilling
tablets are spiked in American supermarkets and seven die.
* February 1986: New York woman dies after taking Tylenol laced with
cyanide.
* March 1986: US Food and Drug Administration declare food tampering
to be ''terrorist criminal act'' and hoax cases should be treated on par
with bomb threats.
* March 1986: Fivefold increase in threats to contaminate food in UK
leads to formation of police national co-ordinating intelligence agency
in London.
* June 1987: Safeways faces #100,000 extortion demand from blackmailer
codenamed the Raven after coleslaw spiked with ground glass, grapefruit
juice laced with paraquat and arsensic in cola and yoghurt found in
three Edinburgh stores.
* April 1989: Heinz spends #32m replacing baby food containers with
new shrink-wrap models following contamination extortion threat.
* May 1989: West Yorkshire police compile dossier containing hundreds
of incidents from 40 police forces following glass contamination of
Nerds sweets.
* July 1989: Manufacturers of Smiths Square Crisps withdraw packets
from Scottish stores after glass contamination. Company suspect crisps
spiked at factory.
* August 1989: 300,000 cans of HP beans recalled nationwide after
glass inserted ''maliciously'' into some cans say police.
* September 1989: Robin Smith, alias The Bogeyman, jailed for five
years at High Court in Edinburgh after threat to contaminate supermarket
products with Aids virus and lace Smarties with drugs. Five companies
and supermarket chains targeted in #265,000 extortion racket.
* October 1989: Scotsman William Shooter jailed for five years after
attempting to extort #140,000 from Marks and Spencer with threat to
contaminate products throughout UK.
* January 1991: Former detective Rodney Whitchelo loses appeal against
17-year jail sentences for #3m extortion racket involving Heinz and
Pedigree Petfoods. Poison and razor blades put in products.
* June 1993: Hundreds of people throughout the US claim to have found
needles in cans of Pepsi. Investigations by FBI and Food and Drug
Administration finds not one to be true.
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