First thing I thought of was that this article was misidentifying sweetbreads (animal thymus or pancreas gland) as sweetmeats but to my surprise, the term sweetmeat refers to any kind of confection NOT made with chocolate. Sweetmeat is a term more often heard in the middle east and archeological evidence suggests that the ancient Egyptians prepared candies with honey, which is where the term originated. Seems that if all these people in Pakistan died from poisoning related to sweetmeats, either the candies were made with contaminated honey (botulism) or someone planned to poison a whole lot of people with delicious candied treats.
http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/pakistan/sweetmeat-poisoning-toll-rises-to-14-in-pakistan-1.1809582
Sweetmeats (left) vs. Sweetbreads (right). Any questions?
