Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough has been linked to a Nestle E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least 72 people in about 30 states. At least 10 of the patients suffered a violent complication known as HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome. Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, one of America’s leading food safety law firms, is representing several people sickened in the outbreak and is continuing to accept cases. To contact our firm, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or receive a free case consultation online from an E. coli lawyer by completing one of our forms. What follows is a look at the Nestle outbreak through the well-trained eye of firm founder Fred Pritzker, a long-time advocate for victims of food poisoning. Pritzker Olsen has recovered tens of millions for victims of foodborne illness by holding those responsible for these outbreaks accountable for the physical suffering and financial pain wrought by serious illness.
On June 19, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that causes food borne illness). The Nestle recall of Toll House refrigerated cookie dough occurred the same day.
Ten days later, on June 29, the FDA announced that E. coli O157:H7 had been found in an unopened package of 16.5 oz. Nestle Toll House refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough bar. A finding of a potentially lethal foodborne adulterant in an unopened package is usually proof positive that the adulteration occurred before the product left the manufacturer’s possession (rather than a “downstream” contamination caused by a distributor, retailer or end user). This means the contamination occurred at the point of production (at the Nestle plant) or in ingredients purchased by Nestle for use in making the product.
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Here’s where it gets interesting though: On July 9, eleven days after the product tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, the FDA announced that the genetic fingerprint of the positive strain did not match the strain identified in the outbreak victims. In short, Nestle was producing refrigerated cookie dough products with at least two separate strains of E. coli O157:H7.
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And here’s where it gets even more interesting: when FDA inspectors descended on the Nestle plant where the cookie dough is produced, in Danville, Virginia, for more than a week of plant inspection and testing of more than 1000 plant environmental surfaces, no E. coli O157:H7 was detected.
The failure to find E. coli O157:H7 in the plant’s environment hardly exonerates Nestle. It’s entirely possible – even likely – that the plant underwent a top-to-bottom cleaning before FDA inspectors arrived at the scene. What’s more, the product implicated in this outbreak was produced long before the inspection. In short, the inspection simply captures a moment in time and not the critical moment when the product was produced.
It’s also entirely possible that the contamination did not occur at the Nestle plant at all. It may have already been in the ingredients Nestle purchased – the result of “upstream” contamination caused by the fault of a Nestle supplier. That, too, hardly exonerates Nestle.
A food producer has a non-delegable duty to guarantee the safety of its ingredients as well as the finished product. This is accomplished in a number of ways including rigorous investigation of supplier production facilities and testing of raw constituent product. Obviously, the finding of two separate strains of dangerous E. coli O157:H7means that Nestle did an incredibly poor job of policing its plant, product and production supplies and guarantees its place in the 2009 Food Safety Hall of Shame.
The writer, Fred Pritzker, is founder and president of PritzkerOlsen, P.ATo contact Fred directly, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or email him at fhp@pritzkerlaw.com
