The World - News from April 29, 1988

Italian health officials said that a blue substance injected into some grapefruit in Rome was not poisonous, and they revoked a nationwide ban on sales of the fruit. Seizure of all grapefruit in Italy had been ordered following reports that six poisoned grapefruit were found in an apparent act of sabotage aimed at Israeli exports. But the ministry said that lab tests determined the substance was methylene blue, a non-toxic biological stain. A poster pasted on the outside of the supermarket where the tainted fruit was found urged a boycott of Israeli products.