On June 16, 2009, three days before the Nestle Toll House recall, the FDA began an inspection of the Nestle USA Danville, Virginia plant that had manufactured the Nestle Toll House cookie dough that has been linked to over 70 illnesses in 30 states. The inspection continued until July 9, 2009. During the Nestle FDA inspection the following observations were made:
OBSERVATION 1 The workmanship of equipment does not allow proper cleaning. Specifically, inside the “Toll House” brand cookie dough preparation room, dry ingredients are placed inside hoppers. The dry ingredients are gravity fed to blending mixers through gate valves that are installed on the hoppers. As a result of this investigation, the firm disassembled all gate valves from all hoppers on production lines 8, 10, 11, and 12. The gate valves appear to have food contact surfaces that are not easily cleanable as evidenced by rough, pitted and discolored cast metal alloy.
OBSERVATION 2 Lack of appropriate design to enable manufacturing systems to be maintained in an appropriate sanitary condition. Specifically, as “Toll House” brand cookie dough was mixed on 6-18-09, ice build-up surrounded pipes that transport a processing aid to mixers on production lines 8, 10, 11, and 12. On line 8, condensate from the ice dripped onto a metal rake that personnel then used to scrape cookie dough from the mixer into a dough trough for transport to the filling line.
Every E. coli outbreak is a product of unsanitary conditions. If the equipment used to make the recalled Nestle cookie dough could not “be maintained in an appropriate sanitary condition,” it is not surprising that a dangerous foodborne pathogen, E. coli, contaminated some cookie dough.
If you have been sickened with an E. coli infection in the Nestle outbreak, please contact our law firm about a Nestle lawsuit:
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