Federal health investigators this week will delve further into the Nestle Cookie Dough E. coli outbreak to determine what ingredient, process or condition led to possible E. coli O157:H7 contamination in batches of Toll House cookie and brownie dough.
The prepackaged, refrigerated dough is unlikely habitat for E. coli O157:H7, which grows harmlessly in the hindguts of cattle and other hooved animals, is expelled in their manure and is most frequently linked to outbreaks involving ground beef or fresh produce grown near cattle. Once consumed by humans, the bacterium sheds a powerful toxin that can cause severe illness, including hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a kind of kidney failure.
From today’s Washington Post:
Because the appearance of E. coli 0157 in cookie dough is so unusual, investigators are looking at a broad range of possible factors, analyzing the ingredients, the plant’s equipment and interior, the health of workers and whether the facility is located near cattle. Federal officials are also considering whether the dough might have been intentionally contaminated
According to Consumer Reports, 39 percent of consumers eat raw cookie dough. It’s a popular snack and Nestle’s marketing experts are well aware of that trend. That’s why national food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker of Pritzker Olsen Attorneys is telling victims of the outbreak that the company will be held accountable despite a label warning on all the cookie dough packages that tells people not to eat the product uncooked.
Pritzker has called on Nestle to immediately pay medical bills and lost wages of the victims. Meanwhile the firm is preparing information for a possible Nestle cookie dough lawsuit and is doing some of its own investigating into the recall and outbreak.
Nestle USA recalled ALL varieties of its Toll House cookie dough on Friday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the company of a high correlation between the 66 people infected by the outbreak strain of E. coli and consumption of raw Nestle cookie dough prior to the onset of E. coli O157:H7 symptoms.
The CDC said the outbreak strain of E. coli has been found in patients in 29 states and that most victims are girls and young women under the age of 19. Pritzker Olsen is representing E. coli victims nationwide and an E. coli lawyer is ready to assist you at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free). If you want to reach an attorney online, complete one of our free case consultation forms.
The Washington Post said Nestle’s recall (click here for details of Nestle cookie dough recall) covers some 300,000 cases of product. The dough is made at a Nestle plant in Danville, Virginia, that employs 500 people. The job of the CDC and FDA, with help from state health department laboratories, will be to find the outbreak strain of E. coli at the plant or in packages that are out in the marketplace or in the homes of people who were sickened.
The CDC has said that 25 victims of the outbreak have been hospitalized, including seven who developed HUS. The number of victims tied to the outbreak is likely to grow. The first known case dates to March 1.
Pritzker Olsen is involved in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness and has collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning. It is one of the few firms in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation.
